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Ghe Joy of Discovery 


AND OTHER ADDRESSES 


nA By 
JOHN RICHELSEN, D.D. 


Pastor, Kenmore Presbyterian Church, © 
Buffalo, N. Y. 


With an Introduction by 
GiB. F. HALLOGK, D.D. 
Brick Church, Rochester, N. Y. 


sel 


fj SOuevua AOD a 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


London and Edinburgh 





Copyright, MCMXxv, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 


Introduction 





IG) 


‘Re poe RMON S are coming to their own. 
NST) More of them are being published each 
Wa year, and more are being read. The 
“929 public is discovering that much that is 
best and most vital in Christian conception of 
today is found in sermons. Here ablest men ex- 
press themselves and often in their ablest way. 

As editor of The Expositor, several years ago, 
the writer of this Introduction discovered the ser- 
monizing powers of the author of this volume of 
vital messages. The people of his own strong and 
rapidly-growing church, of course, long before had 
made the discovery. But we were able gradually 
to overcome the preacher’s reluctance to see his 
sermons in print and treated the readers of our 
magazine to not a few of the results of his pulpit 
work. They liked them. They asked for more. 
And now, at our suggestion, he has prepared this 
volume of fifteen pulpit messages. 

Too often it is feared that the succession of great 
preachers will somehow get broken or lost—“ shat- 
tered by changes of thought, by the widening of ho- 
rizons, or by the hurried indifference of the world.” 
“‘ But,” as has been said, “‘ true preaching is helped, 
not hurt, by lengthening vistas of knowledge and 
the setting back of the skyline. Lifting skies of 
outlook only make the old issues more acute and 
the sharp questions more poignant. The preacher 


3 






a INTRODUCTION 


must speak in the accent and idiom of his age, must 
know it, love it, and thrill with its passion and 
promise, if he is to minister to it. He must feel with 
the men and women to whom he speaks, must know 
the turns in the road and what the pilgrims carry in 
their packs. But he must also know that men do 
not go to church to hear about science, or philoso- 
phy, or even literature, much less to listen to essays 
on economics. They are sorely needing and sadly 
seeking something else. They long to hear a voice 
out of the heavens, some one who knows the things 
eye hath not seen nor ear heard. They seek, as of 
old, the healing touch, the forgiving word, the Hand 
stretched out in the darkness, which makes them 
know that they are not alone in their struggle for 
the good.” 

These are true words. Such has been the busi- 
ness of true preaching in every generation. As we 
have been intimating, the sermons in this volume 
are of this high grade and helpful nature. They are 
in refreshing variety. They are modern in both 
matter and treatment, yet they contain fundamen- 
tal things needed today and in all the days. Even 
the titles entice—‘‘ The Dare of Christ,” “ The Joy 
of Discovery,” ‘ The Magnetic Christ,” “ The De- 
feat of the Strategist,” ‘‘ The Thrill of Easter,” 
‘“‘ Impossible Neutrality,’ etc.—these and all the 
others of the entire fifteen are such as will awaken 
strong desire to read. After having read in manu- 
script we gladly add—“ and the reader will not be 
disappointed.” G. B. F. HALLock. 


Brick Church, 
Rochester, N. Y. 


VII. 


VII. 


XI, 


Contents 


DR ERCEO OM GOR LUT SCOV ER YN) ii) che etna yl ice uiae eae 


Matthew 13: 45-46 


PARMAR ORMCOHRIGT COCR ig Mise 00 BO 
Mark 3:5 
TRA POSSIBLE NEU SRALTEN fa teak es) ee We NR ey 
Mark 15: 43 
Gate ONDAGNETIO CHRIST chive ay or edapay oy ees 
‘Luke 5:28 
. THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST) 3° 000). 8 45 
Genesis 32:24 
BCSOIY STARR TOA on rit noi rir a tae (tcunt s Wig 
Luke 4: 25-26 
ML PER VY MOT RES Tip iin ue een eit ade e UN ak eh uh tg 
Revelation I: 14 
DA DHEILL OR ASTER ec pray tty ahr at seer ay 
John 20:15 
. THE TempTations oF Jesus. I. Breap. . 85 
Matthew 4:4 


. THE Temptations or Jesus. II. MrracrEs. 96 


Matthew 4:7 


Tur Temprations oF Jesus. III. Tue Grory 
OF THE WORLD . PPAR SMG iat oh AP MRI CY 68 
Matthew 4:8 


6 CONTENTS 


XII. Tue Unwe._comse Guest . 
Matthew 22:11 


XIII. A SKYLINE oF Barns 
Luke 12: 17-18 


XIV. Curist AND ProcrEss 
Luke 11:26 


XV. AmBITIOUS DISCIPLES 
Mark 10: 37 


- 120 


5126 


. 140 


TRO 


I 
THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 


“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant 
man, seeking goodly pearls: who, when he had found 
one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, 
and bought tt.’”—Matruew 13: 45-46. 


wa Hapa are no absolute standards of 
ery YF Nae: y value. 
ie (7) What is a glass of water worth? It 
MY SB may be worth a fraction of a cent. It 
may be worth a million dollars. To a man buried 
many days in a cave it may be worth the whole 
material world. A million dollars is not worth a 
cent to one who is drawing his last breath. Valu- 
ations are relative and unstable, depending on 
fluctuating circumstances. 

In Matthew’s Gospel we read one of Jesus’ 
wonderful and gripping short stories. The parable, 
told in thirty-three words, is tucked away among 
longer stories and might be passed over without 
receiving the attention it merits.. But it throbs 
with life when we give it time. It is a parable of 
the joy of discovery. 

The restless spirit of search is a vital element of 
human progress. The eternal “ why? ” falls from 


7 





8 THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 


the lips of the prattling infant and remains the final 
puzzle question of old age. It is the eternal human 
quest for new knowledge and new sensations. And 
the joy of discovery never dies until the human 
spirit is dead. Jesus’ story is of seeking, and of 
the rapture of finding. “ The kingdom of heaven 
is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 
who, when he had found one pearl of great price, 
went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” 

The joy of finding the kingdom of heaven over- 
whelms him who knows how to appraise the value 
of the discovery. No doubt our lives would be 
beneficially influenced if we frequently re-appraised 
the value of our salvation. It will do us great good 
to hear the pearl merchant, as he is disposing of his 
possessions utter his slogan, “‘ Everything I have I 
sell! ” Was he foolish in his estimate of values? 

The value of the salvation offered in the gospel 
is so beyond comparison with that of any other 
possessions which man may ever acquire, that the 
possibility of obtaining that salvation, when one 
realizes what this means, must cause the compara- 
tive value of all other earthly possessions to shrink 
almost to the point of annihilation. 

Jesus, in telling His story of the pearl merchant, 
unveils His own estimate of the value of salvation. 
Salvation, to those who are able to appraise it, is 
what the pearl of great price was to the pearl 
merchant. 

Jesus knew about pearls. But what He had to 


THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 9 


say about pearls in this story is from the viewpoint 
of a pearl merchant. Pearls are the business of the 
pearl merchant. As a connoisseur of pearls, he is 
acquainted with the history of their “finds.” He 
is always seeking them. They fascinate him. He 
knows at a glance whether a pearl has come from 
Ceylon or from the Red Sea. Flaws in pearls are 
seen by him instantly. He is on the alert for new 
pearls. He watches the caravans coming from the 
East. He lives with pearls. He dreams about 
pearls. 

Pearls are to the pearl merchant what paintings 
are to an artist. Jesus might have said to a group 
of art students: “the kingdom of heaven is like 
unto an artist seeking goodly paintings: who, when 
he found a masterpiece, went and sold all that he 
had, and bought it.” Jesus’ conviction was that 
the salvation offered us in the gospel is so great a 
treasure that those who have the soul capacity to 
appraise it gladly give all they have to obtain it. 

There was no sacrifice, in the sense of loss or 
privation, in the exchange for the one pearl of great 
price of all that the merchant man had. Does an 
oil operator suffer a loss if, when he discovers a 
piece of producing acreage far exceeding any other 
of which he has ever known, he sells all he has to 
buy it? Any adequate conception of the worth of 
salvation prohibits the idea that a man suffers loss 
in obtaining it, no matter what its cost to him. 
Jesus would have men gain, not lose: become rich, 


10 THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 


not poor. It were inconceivable that anyone would 
need to beg the pearl merchant please to give up 
some of his other possessions and please to buy the 
pearl of great price. 

Jesus never coaxed men to accept salvation. 
That were a false emphasis in preaching the 
gospel. 

Salvation cost God the precious blood of Jesus 
Christ. There is no need to offer inducements, 
prizes and premiums with salvation to make it 
worth the attention of men and desirable. If men 
are not overwhelmed with joy in the discovery that 
they may, under any conditions, obtain salvation, 
it is because they are not capable of gauging values. 
No joy: no appraisal. And under such circum- 
stances it is dishonoring to God to depreciate sal- 
vation, and cheapen it, by urging its acceptance as 
if thereby a favor were being bestowed on God. 
Jesus characterized the futility and shamefulness 
of such treatment of God’s salvation in His words 
to His disciples: ‘‘ Cast not your pearls before 
swine.” 

No man suffers a loss under any circumstances 
so long as he obtains salvation. A man who is able 
to gauge values, who can appraise the worth to him 
of salvation, sells anything, rather than permit 
that pearl to escape him. The comparative value 
of all other earthly possessions shrinks to nothing. 
“He sold,” we read of this pearl merchant, “ all 
that he had, and bought it.” 


THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 11 


See the pearl merchant leaving the presence of 
the man who showed him the one pearl above all 
pearls. Does the merchant appear to be gloomy, 
sad, depressed after he has been shown the pearl? 
No: he is ecstatic and he is running. And the only 
thing he is doing even more swiftly than his run- 
ning is the mental calculation of how to turn his 
possessions into liquid assets. Do you not see him 
hastening toward his store in the city? But on his 
way he first calls on the auctioneer and drags him 
along with him in his haste. A little red flag, 
“‘ Auction Sale,” goes over the front door of his 
shop. ‘What will you sell?” the astonished 
auctioneer asks. 

“‘ Everything I have I sell! ” the pearl merchant 
declares emphatically. 

Soon the auctioneer cries out the wares of the 
pearl merchant, the crowds gather, the goods are 
transferred, the money flows in. After awhile the 
first rush of business is over. You hear the auc- 
tioneer giving counsel to the merchant: “‘ No more 
can be sold today without foolish sacrifice: let us 
wait till tomorrow! ” 

Does the pearl merchant stop the sale? No! 
He reduces prices in order to turn more of his 
stock of goods into money. “ Everything I have I 
sell! ” he answers the auctioneer, and he shouts 
over the auctioneer’s shoulders to the crowd of 
purchasers: “ Everything I have I sell! ” 

Is not that the pearl merchant’s wife, with con- 


12 THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 


sternation written on her face, coming toward him? 
No doubt she has heard the news of the sale. 
‘What is it you are doing? ” she cries. 

‘“‘ Everything I have I sell! ” he tells her. 

“You are sacrificing your possessions? ” she 
asks in amazement and fear. He knows an ex- 
planation is due his life partner. He takes her 
aside to explain: ‘‘No, no! I am not sacrificing 
anything. I have just seen that pearl of which we 
have been dreaming all our lives! We will have 
something more wonderful than you have ever 
seen. Oh, if I can only get it! Help me sell every- 
thing I have so that I may obtain it! ” 

You see the merchant at his banker’s. ‘ Every- 
thing I have I sell! Take my securities, my 
houses, my fixtures, my documents: I need what 
they will bring quickly! Everything I have I 
sell!” And at the end of the day the banker 
relates to a friend the story of his client, the pearl 
merchant, and of his frenzied sale and the purchase 
of the pearl of great price: “he sold all that he 
had, and bought it.” 

The value of God’s salvation through Jesus 
Christ has not become depreciated during the past 
two thousand years. It is worth to you just what 
Jesus said the pearl of great price was worth to the 
pearl merchant. It is valuable to you beyond all 
comparison with anything you may otherwise 
possess. Jesus was not using loose rhetoric, but 
was declaring eternal truth regarding the value of 


THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 13 


salvation when He said: “If any man come to me 
and hate not (7. e., does not love less) his father, 
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, 
and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be 
my disciple’ (Luke 14: 26). 

Your Lord does not wish you to lose anything. 
He wishes you to possess something wonderful. 
But if you go away “ very sorrowful,” like the rich 
young ruler, you evidently do not know the value 
of the pearl of great price, or you appraise it dif- 
ferently than Jesus did. It is true, today, as 
always, that if you knew the value of salvation you 
gladly and eagerly would seil all you have, if neces- 
sary, to obtain it. The man who has any adequate 
conception of the value of salvation determines to 
possess it. He does not let minor matters peeve 
him. He would let his body be burned as a torch, 
rather than lose it. He appreciates the words of 
Jesus: ‘‘ Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; 
but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and 
the gospel’s the same shall save it. For what shall 
it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, 
and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give 
in exchange for his soul? ” 

_Let us be frank. Do these words still leave you 
cold? Is there in your heart the impression of 
solemn duty rather than ecstatic joy? Surely your 
reaction to the proposition that salvation is of 
more value than anything else on earth, is a self- 
revelation of your own appraisal. The pearl mer- 


14 THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 


chant was not filled with gloom when he saw the 
pearl of great price. What is wrong? 

The cure for our joylessness does not lie in an 
effort of the will. Joy cannot be commanded. It is 
created indirectly, not directly. Take time to con- 
template your salvation, the value of which is so 
wonderful as to cause the comparative value of all 
other earthly possessions to shrink almost to an- 
nihilation. Think not of your failure of appreci- 
ation, but think of Jesus’ pearl merchant. 

Had the pearl merchant not grown blasé? All 
his life he had been fascinated by the hope of a 
great find. How often had he been disappointed! 
Always there were rumors of a wonderful pearl 
which would be brought across the desert by 
the next caravan. Always it was the next cara- 
van. Often he had been thrilled in anticipation, 
but the realization brought disillusionment and 
disappointment. 

But there came the day. We see him, as was his 
custom, going out from the city to meet the incom- 
ing caravan from the East. The pearl merchant 
knows all the old traders. He bows to the linen 
man, and passes on. A word is exchanged with the 
spices merchant. Then he hails the jewelry man. 
“Just about the usual offering?” he calls in 
greeting. 

The jewelry man, his old friend, seems nervous. 
But perhaps he is merely growing old. He asks the 
pearl merchant into his tent. He opens the box of 


THE JOY OF DISCOVERY 15 


jewels. The nervousness had no particular mean- 
ing. There are heantiful stones to be seen, some of 
them quite remarkable pearls. But the pearl mer- 
chant has seen pearls for many years. There is 
nothing extraordinary. The trade will be a good 
one for him; but that is all. 

Then the jewelry man lays his hand on the pearl 
merchant’s shoulder. There is, in his eye, a ques- 
tion of whether he may trust the pearl merchant to 
see and appreciate. Evidently he is satisfied that 
he is dealing with one who knows. Reverently he 
draws forth from a hiding place in his inner gar- 
ments a small receptacle. With tense expression 
and trembling hands he brings to view a pearl. 

The merchant man seeking goodly pearls fastens 
his eyes upon the one pearl of great price which he 
sees. There is no haggling. In a moment, on that 
happy day, the pearl merchant, who knows pearls, 
fixes his choice, the great transaction’s done! As 
he hastens away to make final arrangements for its 
purchase he sings in his heart: “ Eureka! Eureka! 
I have found it! I have found it! ” 


II 
THE DARE OF CHRIST 


“ He saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand.” 
—Mark 3:5. 


~PHRISTIANITY is an _ adventure. 
#92 Christianity attracts bold spirits. It 

mu fascinates men who in the spiritual 
~oe realm are pioneers: who have daring 
and initiative. 

Small-spirited men have a hard time of it to 
appreciate the attractiveness of Christianity. But 
Christianity has always had drawing power for 
large-spirited, bold, tumultuous men. It has fasci- 
nated men who, had they not become great saints, 
would have been daring sinners: and sometimes 
they were both. 

Men who could be interested in thirty pieces of 
silver would only be temporary disciples. Chris- 
tianity has not been kept alive by small-spirited 
Christians: such have been Christianity’s parasites, 
using up her storage of vitality, and contributing 
nothing. The big-spirited men, men who would 
have become generals and king-makers and empire- 
builders if they had not gone wild over Jesus 
Christ, have constituted the constructive forces of 
Christianity. Being set in prominent, historic 
16 





THE DARE OF CHRIST 17 


places is a matter of circumstances. What is true 
of men set in a world arena holds equally true of 
men whose lives are set in lesser theatres. Jesus 
courts and intrigues violent men. 

A man came into the synagogue of Capernaum 
who had a withered hand. Luke tells us it was 
his right hand which was deprived of use. St. 
Jerome said that the man was a bricklayer. This 
man was asked by Jesus to stand up in the syna- 
gogue so all could see him. The audience was 
hostile. The man was placed in an embarrassing 
position. He was commanded to put his trust in 
Christ, and to do so publicly and conspicuously 
and while he could not as yet be certain that his 
acquiescence would result in his healing. It was 
a challenge of venture. It was the dare Christ 
offered. 

No doubt there was hesitation, wavering, mis- 
giving in the mind of this paralytic during the 
moments which flashed by after Jesus said: 
“Stretch forth thine hand.” There was nothing 
impossible in the command. It was not the man’s 
arm that was paralyzed. He could stretch forth 
his withered hand. But in doing that he would be 
declaring that he trusted Jesus to heal him. Per- 
haps Jesus reached out His own hand toward him 
with the invitation, ‘‘Give me your hand! ” 
Surely it was that in substance. 

If we see this man in the synagogue and live 
through the scene with him and feel with him at the 


18 THE DARE OF CHRIST 


end when faith and daring overcame fear and dis- 
trust, we shall be sympathetic when he finally 
moves his arm forward and cries out: ‘‘ Jesus, here 
is my hand! ” 

We may wonder why Jesus required this com- 
mitment of the paralytic man. Was it a whim? 
Was it a requirement which fitted only this par- 
ticular case? The story will mean even more to 
us than sympathetic joy in another man’s victory, 
and we shall be more personally and vitally inter- 
_ ested in its issue if we realize that Jesus’ reasons 
for requiring the adventure of faith are as much 
applicable to us as they were to this paralytic. 
Since this paralytic would not have been healed, 
had he not dared, we will also learn the truth that 
without daring we shall not be saved. 

Christianity demands of men a commitment, a 
yielding of themselves beyond known borders, an 
adventure. This is not an arbitrary condition of 
salvation, but is a soul exercise essential to salva- 
tion. Without this adventure there is no possi- 
bility of conversion. 

Christianity lays great stress on the necessity of 
a commitment of faith before witnesses. This is 
one of the peculiarities of the Christian religion. 

A commitment before witnesses predicates the 
necessity of an audience. Christianity cannot 
function without audiences. It cannot be devel- 
oped in solitude; or over the radio. There is 
nothing merely incidental in this requirement of 


THE DARE OF CHRIST 19 


witnesses. Certain things in Christianity must be 
done before men. It is clear that Jesus expected 
public profession of allegiance to Him as a condi- 
tion of salvation. ‘Throughout the Bible there is 
insistence on public commitments. So we have 
this demand on the paralytic, “Stretch forth 
thine hand.” 

It is contrary to the genius of Christianity that 
it be cultivated in isolation. The Lord’s prayer 
carries the implication of an audience as witness, 
for it begins not with “my” Father, but with 
“our” Father. The Sacraments of Baptism and 
the Lord’s Supper cannot be administered in soli- 
tude. The commitment of public affirmation is not 
a caprice on the part of God, but has its reasons 
deep in the souls of men. It is not an ay 
demand. It means something vital. 

In a reasonable religion we expect to find, and at 
least partially to understand divine reasons to sup- 
port its demands. So we look for the reasons for 
public commitment. We do not know what deter- 
mines the human will or what are the sources of its 
decisions. We are convinced that intellectual 
processes have little to do with our wills. The 
human will is not mechanical as are scales. The 
preponderance of reasons does not always deter- 
mine conduct. It is our common experience that 
in most of our actions we throw to the winds any 
overbalance of reasons one way or the other to 
pursue the course which is dictated by our will, 


20 THE DARE OF CHRIST 


or desire, or vague sense of right, or undefined 
feeling of what is best to do. We often throw - 
doubt on the finality of our own intellectual 
processes and, contrary to them, act according to 
our intuitions. 

Though the sources of our conduct may often 
puzzle us, we do know, from the facts of our ex- 
perience, that nothing so determines the will as 
affirmation or commitments. Men seldom believe 
anything until after they have repeatedly affirmed 
it. Each successive affirmation men make fastens 
conviction on their souls as nails fasten boards. 

Let a man constantly assert that he accepts 
Jesus Christ as his Saviour and he is not troubled | 
with doubt. Let a man frequently affirm that he 
does not know what he believes, and he is soon 
utterly bewildered. This fact in the souls of men 
is so seriously true that when a man begins the 
affirmation of what he knows is not true, he ends 
with inability to distinguish the truth as he first 
knew it, and to believe his own lie. 

Jesus had reasons for demanding a commitment 
by speech and conduct: ‘‘ Whosoever, therefore, 
shall confess me before men, him will I confess 
also before my Father which is in heaven. But 
whosoever shall deny (refuse to confess) me before 
men, him will I also deny before my Father which 
is in heaven.” ‘That is unequivocal. 

This commitment which Christ demands is an 
adventure. 


THE DARE OF CHRIST 21 


There is no adventure in traveling over ground 
you have before covered. The Christian commit- 
ment is a plunging into the unknown. Adventure 
begins when you cross a bridge over which you 
have not before gone. The thrill of adventure lays 
hold on us when we wander into the woods beyond 
the clearing. 

Christianity’s appeal is to the daring in the souls 
of men. Therefore timid souls are afraid of Christ. 
They shy away from Him. He makes them un- 
comfortable. One who would not commit himself 
beyond his present experiences fears to hear the 
insistent invitations of Jesus. Jesus wished this 
man in the Capernaum synagogue to take the 
plunge of faith. It meant taking a chance on 
Jesus. Of course the paralytic would have become 
ridiculous had Jesus not been able to do anything 
for him or had the paralytic found himself in the 
crisis unable to stretch forth his hand. The dare 
compels one to discount the possibility of failure. 
Otherwise it were no daring. This man was in the 
circumstances of a child whose parent sets him on 
a table and demands, “‘ Jump, and I’ll catch you! ” 

Assurance comes only after venture. Assurance 
before venture is the desire of the faint-hearted. 
But the divine order of things is to the contrary. 
In the midst of dreadful uncertainty Jesus urged 
on the paralytic the adventure of faith as a con- 
dition of healing. 

This man with the palsied hand could not have 


22 THE DARE OF CHRIST 


any assurance until after he ventured. Of course 
he had the testimony of others concerning the 
power of Jesus. Such testimony made his course 
reasonable. Yet it could not guarantee him cer- 
tainty in his own case. Testimony of others does 
not create certainty. One does not become a swim- 
mer by memorizing a text-book of directions, 
amply attested as correct. It is well enough to 
know the theories of buoyancy. Yet most people 
who swim know little about the theories. And all 
the book knowledge concerning swimming does no 
good without actually getting into the water. Then 
only does one know he can swim. God is out in 
the deep calling to bold spirits to plunge them- 
selves into the crimson flood. 

Such commitment before assurance may frighten 
small-spirited men. They have a hard time of it to 
grasp what induced some men to give up every- 
thing for Jesus Christ. But great men, bold spirits, 
like John the Baptist and Saul of Tarsus, Christ 
_ always challenged with His dare: men who could 
talk back to kings and endure imprisonment and 
_ beheading. Jesus captivated and fascinated men 
like Matthew and Zaccheus who had it in them to 
do daring things, who were not afraid to leave 
everything they had to follow Him. To some men, 
Christianity does not mean anything beyond an 
expedient to save themselves from going to hell. 
. Christ fills their small capacities, but they cannot 
_ know what larger capacities Jesus could equally fill. 


THE DARE OF CHRIST 23 


Jesus courted violent men. He intrigued them 
with His idea of the kingdom of heaven. After 
referring to men who were like reeds shaken with 
the wind; or were men clothed in soft raiment; He 
said: “The kingdom of heaven suffereth (7. e., 
“permits,” as in “suffer little children to come 
unto me,”’) violence and the violent take it by 
force.” Christianity has enthralled and led captive 
the bold men, the men of daring and initiative, and, 
due to their magnificent service poured out unspar- 
ingly, Christianity has persisted in every genera- 
tion even against otherwise overwhelming lethargy. 

You will need to stretch forth your hand if ever 
you are to know the power of Christ. Some of you 
may have begun to make your commitment and 
then have again drawn back your hand. Jesus 
asks commitment, a yielding of yourself beyond 
known borders, an adventure. This is not merely 
an arbitrary demand. It is essential to your soul’s 
salvation. A deliberate, sincere, final commitment 
of one’s self to God through Jesus Christ, is con- 
version. After such commitment comes assurance. 

At the brink of salvation loiter the hesitant, the 
fearful, the trifling. They are always thinking 
about swimming and studying the waters, but do 
not plunge in. They are afraid of Christ’s dare. 
Jesus, after He went back to heaven, sent a final 
message to them in the words: “ I know thy works 
that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou 
wert cold or hot. So then because thou art luke- 


24 THE DARE OF CHRIST 


warm and neither cold nor hot I will spue thee out 
of my mouth.” Thus always ends the story of 
Jesus Christ and the small-spirited. 

This paralytic might have hesitated and never 
been healed. Did he not question within himself: 
‘How do I know that this Jesus can heal me? He 
seems to have healed others, yet that does not 
prove He can help me. Why is it necessary for me 
to stretch forth my hand to Him here in public? ” 

The situation was embarrassing to this man. 
His friends and neighbors were about him. And 
this audience was hostile to Jesus. Jesus had 
“looked round about on them with anger.” And 
still the paralytic, even under these trying circum- 
stances, was commanded publicly to put his trust 
in Christ. Dare he do it? There was hesitation 
and doubt and misgivings. The answer would be 
framing itself on his lipe: “‘ No, that I cannot do! ” 

But when Christ and certain kinds of men meet, 
the magnetism of Jesus is irresistible. This man in | 
the Capernaum synagogue had the soul Christ 
could reach. He ventured. There was inner per- 
suasion that gave him will-power to initiate action. 
He accepted Christ’s dare. 

See him rising to meet Jesus who had com- 
manded, “ Stretch forth thine hand.” Watch his 
arm bend forward as he commits himself: ‘ Jesus, 
here is my hand! ” 


III 


t 


IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 


“Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counsellor, 
. . came, and went tin boldly unto Pilate, and 
craved the body of Jesus.’—Mark 15: 43. 





ow Sa |) cess or failure of a conflict. It may be 
SYMON“ ES friendliness toward both sides of a con- 
2S) troversy. It means taking no part. 
The state of neutrality proclaims a person, or a 
body of persons, as not committed to either side 
of a question. 

Partizanship is the opposite of neutrality. 
Friendship giving itself expression whether for a 
person, principle or ideal, makes itself partizan. 

Joseph of Arimathza was one of the seventy 
members of the Sanhedrin, the highest religious 
body of the nation. Like Nicodemus, he was a 
ruler of the Jews. When Jesus was brought to 
trial before the Sanhedrin Joseph of Arimathea 
was one of His judges. At that time nothing is 
told us of this Joseph. There is little doubt that 
he was kindly disposed toward our Lord. Yet he 
kept that fact a secret. As a just man, Joseph 
could not agree to pronounce Jesus guilty. Ina 


25 





26 IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 


subsequent statement we are told of this Joseph 
(Luke 23: 50), ‘the same had not consented to 
the counsel and deed of them.” 

The first impression made on us by Joseph of 
Arimathea is that of conservatism, neutrality and 
justice. His sense of justice forbade his voting for 
Jesus’ crucifixion on the night before the execu- 
tion: his conservatism kept him from taking any 
decided stand in Jesus’ behalf: his neutrality 
commanded his silence. 

It is evident that something happened within 
Joseph’s heart during the hours in which Jesus 
hung on the Cross which changed his attitude from 
benevolent neutrality to bold partizanship. On 
the evening of Good Friday Pilate was sought by 
an unexpected visitor with an astonishing request: 
“‘ Joseph of Arimathza, an honorable counsellor, 

. came, and went in boldly unto Pilate and 
craved the body of Jesus.” 

The request was a frank avowal by this Ruler 
of Israel of his partizanship for Jesus. There is 
contained in it a thrill of loyalty to a new friend- 
ship. The petition revealed deep feeling. It 
stands out against the background of Joseph’s 
position and character. It was not simply an act 
of justice. As such it would have come too late to 
have meaning. The high color of the picture pre- 
sented us is the red of the blood of partizanship 
and bold committal. 

If we may become acquainted with this Joseph 


IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 27 


of Arimathea and may know his process of 
thought, bringing him to this momentous decision, 
there will be something gripping us in the throat 
as we finally hear him say to the Roman governor, 
Pontius Pilate: ‘‘ Your excellency, I ask for the 
body of Jesus of Nazareth which is hanging on 
the Cross on Calvary! ” 

Moved by the heroic devotion of Joseph of 
Arimathea, it will hardly be possible for us to 
miss certain conclusions about our own partizan- 
ship toward Jesus Christ, or our lack of it. The 
reasons may be revealed which are the causes of 
our own attitude and conduct, whatever it be. 

Intense friendship and neutrality are mutually 
exclusive sentiments. Man cannot both love and 
be neutral toward the same object. Justice and 
neutrality are compatible. Love and partizanship 
are compatible. But love and neutrality are in- 
compatible. Where there is affection neutrality is 
impossible. 

Previous to the incident related in the text, the 
attitude of Joseph of Arimathea toward Jesus 
must be characterized as one which was neutral 
and judicial. 

An attitude of neutrality is often justified. It 
may be justified on the grounds of indifference 
toward an issue. Not every conflict is worthy of 
our attention. An attitude of neutrality may be 
sensible on the ground of incompetence of knowl- 
edge. Particularly is this true when a question of 


28 IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 


the relation between Christianity and science is 
raised and one knows himself not to be competent 
as a scientist. Under such circumstances it is 
folly to be partizan. An attitude of neutrality 
may be justified on the grounds of prudence. 
Peaceable living with our fellowmen is often con- 
ditioned on the wisdom of refusing to be a partizan 
in conflicts which are none of our business. Also, 
in the administration of justice the only honorable 
attitude is that of neutrality. 

Little fault may be found with the conservative 
neutrality of Joseph of Arimathza so long as Jesus 
Christ meant to him only a good man who was un- 
justly accused. Joseph had probably done his full 
duty in the Sanhedrin. He had defended Jesus. 
Yet it should be realized that Joseph had defended 
Jesus only as he would and should have defended 
any other man who was not receiving justice. 

Of course there is a vast difference between such 
an attitude of neutral justice and the attitude of 
personal devotion. It is not too much to say that 
before this day Joseph of Arimathza would have 
hesitated long, before he would have consented to 
walk the streets of Jerusalem in broad daylight, 
arm in arm with Jesus. 

Neutrality and friendship are incompatible. 
You will remember Jesus’ praise of friendship: 
“Greater love hath no man than this that a man 
lay down his life for his friend.” That which 
would cause one to lay down his life for another, 


IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 29 


such friendship, is not compatible with neutrality. 
One may not lose all sense of justice, when friend- 
ship is involved, but the sense of unbiased neu- 
trality and indifference is gone forever even when 
one finds it necessary to execute justice. One does 
not ask justice of a friend. One demands justice 
from anyone, as a right. You do a man no favor 
in granting him justice. It is his right. It is 
your duty. 

In being just to him, Joseph was no partizan of 
Jesus. From a friend one expects partizanship. 
And the deeper the friendship the keener the par- 
tizanship. Is there a partizanship equal to that of 
a mother? Love knows only partizanship: no 
partizanship, no love. 

So long as Jesus was no particular friend of 
Joseph of Arimathza an attitude of neutrality and 
justice was altogether honorable. But a combina- 
tion of love and neutrality is impossible. Could 
you be neutral toward your mother? Your child? 
When Joseph came to love Jesus he could no longer 
avoid the open declaration of his partizanship. 

It were difficult to overstate the effect of Joseph’s 
conduct over many thousands of men and women 
in Jerusalem. It must have swayed a multitude in 
favor of Jesus. The face of Pilate surely expressed 
frank astonishment. The Roman soldiers who par- 
ticipated in the execution could hardly have felt at 
ease in their former conclusions concerning Jesus. 
The reputation which Joseph of Arimathza, “ the 


30 IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 


honorable counsellor,’ had gained through many 
years of worthy living, the standing he commanded 
with his fellowmen, all was now thrown as in- 
fluence to the cause of the Lord. 

Before the partizanship of Joseph was declared, 
there may have been unanimity of condemnation 
against Christ in the market places of Jerusalem. 
It is not difficult to imagine oneself overhearing the 
gossip in the bazaars of the city: ‘‘ This Jesus who 
was crucified yesterday was surely a miserable de- 
ceiver and blasphemer.”’ And another concurs: 
‘“‘ All those simple-minded followers of His were 
nothing but silly fools.”” And a third: “ They must 
have felt proud of their Lord when they saw Him 
hanging with the thieves and murderers—that was 
where He belonged.” 

But how disconcerting to their complacency of 
condemnation must it have been when one came 
and asked: ‘‘ Have you heard that Joseph of Ari- 
mathza has turned and become a disciple of the 
crucified Jesus? ”’ One can imagine nothing but 
the laughter of unbelief, ‘‘ What? The venerable 
Joseph, the Ruler of the Sanhedrin? You are out 
of your mind! Joseph of Arimathza is one of the 
finest men of our nation.” 

But then came corroboration of the strange 
news. The account of the request before Pilate 
became verified. The details of Joseph’s purchases 
of spices and fine linen to anoint the body of Jesus 
were established beyond doubt, as well as that 


IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 3] 


more intimate and personal tribute of devotion, the 
laying of Jesus’ body in the tomb reserved for 
Joseph himself. So the astonishing fact stood be- 
yond gainsaying: Joseph had become Jesus’ par- 
tizan. His endorsement of Jesus was unequivocal. 
It was sensational. What a glorious contribution 
Joseph of Arimathza made to the reputation of 
Jesus among his contemporaries. Forever he en- 
graved his own name on the books of earth and 
heaven. 

For us in our own sphere of influence there is 
but this one partizan attitude: 


“Tm not ashamed to own my Lord, 
Or to defend His cause, 
Maintain the honor of His word, 
The glory of His Cross.” 


If you are a real partizan of Jesus Christ your 
one chief concern is how, when and where, you may 
best honor His name and extend His influence over 
the world. So long as Jesus is no particular friend 
of yours you may honorably give Him the justice 
He deserves and stop there. But as a partizan of 
His your chief concern will be to declare and em- 
phasize your allegiance and loyalty and devotion. 
Only in a secondary way will you consider your 
own preferences, prejudices, ease and comfort. 

The practical execution of one’s impulse to acts 
of loyalty will not be performed without sugges- 
tions for delay or modification or repressions. 


32 IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 


Such suggestions must also have come to Joseph of 
Arimathea before his final heroic action. 

I think Joseph looked upon Jesus on the Cross 
and heard what He said and saw how He died: and 
so recalled many other things concerning Jesus, 
and finally gave his unreserved affection to Him. 
And as the sun began to sink in the west and the 
shadows of the crosses lengthened and the body on 
the middle cross had grown entirely still, Joseph 
began to think of what would now soon follow— 
the usual treatment of an executed criminal’s re- 
mains—the lacerated body thrown naked into a 
grave in the potter’s field before sundown. 

Probably then the thought was born in him: “ It 
is too bad that Jesus’ disciples have not sufficient - 
influence to save the body of Jesus from this dese- 
cration!—Pilate could issue an order to prevent 
this needless humiliation.—But none of these Gali- 
leans are of sufficient importance to have any 
weight with Pilate.” 

Yet the matter could not thus be dismissed from 
his mind, while the question arose, “ But if I, my- 
self, should go, would not Pilate listen? ” 

The usual attitude of the Jewish rabbis toward 
the representative of Rome is well known. It were 
humiliating to a ruler of the Jews to feel compelled 
to ask a favor of the politician whom Cesar had 
sent to Jerusalem. No doubt Joseph of Arimathea 
recoiled from the suggestion. ‘It would be no 
_ service to Jesus now, anyway; for He is dead.—It 


IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 33 


is too late to do anything, now.—No other grave 
can now be prepared before sundown!” But a 
conclusion was insistent: “If you really loved 
Jesus you would not have your own splendid 
mausoleum stand empty here, nearby, while the 
body of your friend was thrown into the potter’s 
field! ” 

The crisis for Joseph’s soul was at hand. “If I 
go to Pilate and obtain the body of Jesus and place 
it in my own tomb I will be hated by all my fellow- 
men, be laughed at in derision and place a lifelong 
stigma on my name. That I will not do. That I 
cannot do! ” Regretfully he would leave Golgotha. 

Once more he looks upon Jesus on the Cross. 
He sees and believes that which millions since that 
day have experienced at the foot of the Cross. 
When that truth flashes dazzlingly on his mind it is 
as if he had cried out: 


“ Jesus, and shall tt ever be 
A mortal man ashamed of Thee? 
Ashamed of Thee whom angels praise 
Whose glory shines through endless days?” 


Then he wraps his cloak about him and steps 
quickly and firmly down Calvary’s hill and across 
Kedron. Men salute him as he passes them on his 
way: ‘‘ Peace with thee, Rabbi! ” ‘“‘ Peace, Rabbi 
Joseph! ”—But Joseph replies without seeing or 
stopping. 

You may follow him as he goes through the gates 


34 IMPOSSIBLE NEUTRALITY 


into the city. He comes to the palace of the 
Roman Governor. The soldier on guard is aston- 
ished at the request of the rabbi for an immediate 
interview with Pontius Pilate. But the soldier only 
salutes and goes. In a moment there sounds the 
measured tread of the palace guards, and the Cap- 
tain transmits the message: “ His excellency will 
hear you. He grants you audience! ” 

Now you see Rabbi Joseph of Arimathza as he 
crosses the marble floor of the Judgment Hall and 
stands before Pontius Pilate: you hear his words: 
“Your excellency, I ask for the body of Jesus 
of Nazareth which is hanging on the Cross on 
Calvary! ” 


IV 
THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 


“And he [Matthew] left all, rose up, and followed 
him.”—LuKeE 5: 28. 


TWRHE magnet is a force of attraction, and 
aes is a force of selective attraction. 

9 A box may contain sawdust, shav- 
CY GS, ings, bits of steel. If one draw a 
magnet across such a box the steel struggles and 
works its way upward and finally leaps to the mag- 
net. The sawdust is unaffected. 

A magnet is a test of materials. The magnet re- 
veals the sawdust and the steel. It is inevitable. 
The judgment is inexorable. There is no possibil- 
ity of mistake. 

Matthew’s response to Jesus’ summons was 
sensational. He is introduced as a Roman tax- 
gatherer sitting at the collection of toll; a Pariah 
and an outcast from Israel. Jesus, in passing 
Matthew’s place of business, invites him into fel- 
lowship with the simple command, “ Follow me.” 

All Christendom is interested in the story of the 
conversion of this great disciple who later made so 
valuable a contribution to New Testament litera- 
ture. But such interest is intensified and of per- 


35 





36 THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 


sonal concern if the wonderful response of Matthew 
is to be explained by a spiritual principle of uni- 
versal application. If we ought to respond as 
Matthew did, and yet do not respond as he did to 
the call of Jesus, we should know if Christianity 
asserts it can explain every response or every 
absence of response by a rule which is without 
exceptions. 

We have related to us the response of Matthew 
which thrills our souls: ‘he left all, rose up, 
and followed him.” When we understand why 
Matthew followed Jesus the relation of his action 
to ourselves will be clear and we will have more 
than passing interest In seeing him sweep every- 
thing else aside and pledge himself for that day 
and for all the days of his life in the decision: 
‘¢ Jesus, gladly will I follow thee! ” 

The responses of men to the approach of Jesus 
are inevitably determined by the state of spiritual 
receptivity in the human soul, which always reveals 
itself automatically and unmistakably in Jesus’ 
presence. 

The gospel reveals men. It reveals men to 
themselves. It reveals men to themselves so un- 
mistakably that they may clearly judge themselves. 

Some men were instantly attracted to Jesus. 
Other men were never convinced by Jesus’ person- 
ality or message. The instant effectiveness of 
Jesus’ contacts with some men is one of the out- 
standing facts of the Gospels. The case of 


THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 37 


Matthew may be accepted as a typical illustra- 
tion to this point. But Matthew’s reaction was 
not a unique occurrence. Many of Matthew’s 
contemporaries responded as he did, and with 
equal fervor. 

These striking results of Jesus’ ministry are not 
adequately accounted for by any of the words or 
arguments used by Jesus. In Matthew’s case the 
words preceding the surrender were, ‘‘ Follow me.” 
Yet no words of Jesus were automatically effective. 
Had Jesus’ power been in words we might expect 
His logic inevitably to compel conviction. But His 
words were not thus convincing. ‘There was no 
formula which was necessarily faith-producing. 
Jesus did not summarize the gospel into a verbal 
prescription. No universal syllogism was enunci- 
ated which would inevitably convince like a mathe- 
matical proposition. 

No great astuteness is needed to surmise a play 
of forces beneath the actual words of Jesus. As we 
note results like this one in the story of Matthew, 
we instinctively feel that Jesus was grappling, with 
arms of love, beneath the surface of the things com- 
municated by words. It was as if Jesus addressed 
some faculty deeper and more reliable than the 
brain. We have reason to believe that there is an 
inner consciousness in man of which the intellect 
is only a door. Jesus reached down into those 
hidden recesses of man’s being. He spoke deep to 
deep, soul to soul. Sometimes there were no re- 


38 THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 


sults. Sometimes the effects seemed magical, start- 
ling, as in the conversion of Matthew. 

Do you recall the story of Nathanael? When he 
and Jesus met, things also happened quickly. 
There was.a short question: “‘ Whence knowest 
thou me?” There were a few words which mean 
nothing to us: ‘‘ When thou wast under the fig 
tree I saw thee.” Yet we feel that something was 
taking place beneath the surface; deep speaking 
unto deep. We become aware that souls have 
made contact. One, who a moment before was an 
avowed skeptic, now cries out: ‘‘ Rabbi, thou art 
the Son of God: thou art the King of Israel.” 

Jesus was always approaching men, calling them. 
They either believed on Him, or disbelieved. 
There was a parting of ways. There was created 
an unavoidable crisis for the soul. The gospels are 
the history of these crises. Bluntly the facts are 
stated. There was no attempt to hide displeasing 
truths. The Gospels are not loving imagination. 
The frankness of the gospel writers is sometimes 
disconcerting. If one desired to believe that Jesus’ 
ministry was always successful, some statements of 
the biographers of the New Testament would be 
keenly disappointing. Love for the Master may 
resent the recitals of the failures of Jesus’ work— 
at least until love understands. 

With frank disingenuity we are told that many 
approaches of Christ to men utterly fell flat. He 
was not always convincing. There were those on 


THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 39 


whom He lavished all the winsomeness of His per- 
sonality in vain; into whose ears He poured His 
messages without arousing any response. Men 
left His glowing presence unaffected and cold. In 
spite of all His eloquence and toil, they did not 
believe on Him. 

Then, again, thousands of Matthew’s fellowmen 
responded in like manner as he did. You hear their 
cry: “ Jesus, gladly will we follow thee.” Men and 
women of most unlikely types, rose to heroic stat- 
ure and continued true to Jesus till their death. 
Through the ages the chorus has been swelled by 
millions of old and young, wise and ignorant, 
princes and paupers, who also have “ joined the 
everlasting song and crowned Him Lord of all.” 

Human souls seemed at times like lost coins. 
Jesus’ words ate into the rust and grime, the ac- 
cumulations of cares and worries, the hard crusts 
of neglect and sin. Some coins, seemingly in bad 
condition, being cleansed, revealed the face and 
superscription of the Heavenly Father. Other 
coins seemed to have been utterly destroyed by the 
rust which had penetrated to their very centers, 
beyond reclaim. 

Jesus spent all night with Nicodemus, a ruler of 
the Jews. It was a noteworthy conference because, 
during it, Jesus poured out His philosophy of sal- 
vation, and the second birth, in words which have 
become the classic expressions of the terms of re- 
demption. But the interview was not conspicuous 


40 THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 


for its results. Nicodemus does not seem to have 
been touched to response. 

There is the dialogue between Jesus and Pontius 
Pilate. The nature of the kingdom of truth was 
discussed. Jesus declared His belief in such a 
kingdom and affirmed that He Himself was its sov- 
ereign. It was a marvellously appealing discourse 
poured forth by the Lord of Glory into the ear of 
the Roman Governor. Yet after He had finished, 
Pilate ordered Him flogged. That soil of Pilate’s 
heart was simply impossible. Contrast Nicodemus 
or Pilate with Nathanael or Matthew, and there is 
sufficient illustration of the varied states of spirit- 
ual receptivity that determined the result of Jesus’ 
approaches. 

The soil dictated the result of the sowing of the 
gospel seed. The sower was always faithful and 
the seed was consistently good; but the nature of 
the ground into which it fell decreed the response. 
The facts of the story of Jesus remove any doubts 
that the state of spiritual receptivity determined 
the crisis of the soul. 

It was not Jesus who was gauged by the varied 
results of His approach, but the calibre of the indi- 
vidual’s soul. Upon Jesus’ call there was made a 
self-registry of soul capacity. Jesus’ invitation at- 
tracted and unmistakably drew the souls which 
were sensitive to the things of God. It was invari- 
ably a test of the soul. There was no escape from 
it. There never was a mistake in its accuracy. It 


THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 41 


was infallible. Men’s responses revealed their own 
soul condition. Thus the gospel approach removed 
the task of judgment from Jesus’ shoulders so He 
could say, as He did, ‘‘ I judge no man.” This was 
so because the Gospel compelled men to automatic 
self-judgment. ! 

Jesus is the soul’s magnet. As a magnet is a test 
of materials, so Jesus is the test of souls. The mag- 
net reveals the sawdust and the steel. It is inevi- 
table. The judgment is inexorable. There is no 
possibility of mistake. The test of the soul is a 
self-revelation. It explains definitely why men 
believe or why men disbelieve. 

Jesus said: ‘‘ My sheep hear my voice.” 

This was Jesus’ explanation of belief and 
unbelief. 

‘Ye believe not,” Jesus said again, ‘‘ because ye 
are not of my sheep.” Jesus insisted that this test 
was invariably true: ‘“ If any man will do his will, 
he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God, 
or whether I speak of myself.” 

“Everyone that is of the truth heareth my 
voice,” Jesus said to Pilate; with those words cut- 
ting through all debate and the sophistries which 
the Governor would raise on the question of being 
able to discern truth. That is Jesus’ assertion of a 
universal principle, applicable to ‘‘ everyone.” 

We may pronounce judgment on ourselves by the 
result of the test of our souls. As Jesus called to 
Matthew, so He calls to us, Does the call leave us 


42 THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 


cold, or does it set our souls throbbing? In the an- 
swer is the declaration of the state of the soul. 

The state of the soul need not be static. Deci- 
sions were necessarily, and automatically, created 
by the approach of Jesus. Yet such decisions, 
when adverse, were not beyond recall and final. 
They concluded the matter for that time and peril- 
ously strengthened a tendency. Yet this is not a 
philosophy of fatalism. There is room for repent- 
ance up to the time when sin has eaten out the 
image of God in the soul. The soul is the soil and 
determines the fruition of the gospel seed. But the 
soil which is hard, trampled, resistant at one time, 
may be plowed and harrowed, by grace and by sor- 
row, and made receptive at another time. No man 
knows the limits of grace. Yet whether this should 
lead one to easy comfort or not, you yourself be the 
judge. How many conspicuous instances can you 
recall of men, in the gospels, who were unrespon- 
sive to Christ at His approach to them, and later 
became responsive? One’s reaction to Jesus’ voice 
calling today is not a trifling matter. 

Dreading and longing were surely both in 
Matthew’s heart when Jesus stood before him. A 
man may both yearn for and dread the same event. 
Matthew had already known much about this Jesus 
of Galilee. What he knew of Him must have 
touched chords of desire within his heart. Jesus 
had manifestly acted with the power of God in 
many instances already known to Matthew of Ca- 


THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 43 


pernaum. Certain inevitable conclusions concern- 
ing this Jesus could hardly be dismissed. Israel’s 
hopes and the promises of the fathers must con- 
stantly have flashed into Matthew’s mind and soul. 
His inmost being would be strangely attracted to 
Jesus as by a soul magnet. What would he do if 
Jesus should ever happen to call him? 

No doubt the dread realities of his situation 
forced Matthew to fight off his dreams. The thing 
was impossible. He would have to decline any 
invitation Jesus might proffer. He would need to 
explain to Jesus, if Jesus did not already know it, 
that he was a publican and a Roman tax-gatherer, 
and therefore ineligible to discipleship. He knew 
himself to be beyond the pale. He was a pariah 
and an outcast from Israel. No: he could not 
accept any invitation. He repressed the strange 
longings within himself. Under no circumstances 
would he become Jesus’ avowed follower. 

Then, one day, as Matthew was engrossed in his 
tasks at the receipt of custom, there was a commo- 
tion in the street. The cry was raised, ‘“ Jesus of 
Nazareth is coming this way! ” In spite of resolu- 
tions, Matthew’s heart leaped within him. He 
must see Jesus. The attraction was irresistible. 
He must hear that magnetic voice should Jesus 
have aught to say in the streets of Capernaum 
that day. 

Preceded and followed by enthusiasts, Jesus 
came. He seemed immediately to note Matthew’s 


AA THE MAGNETIC CHRIST 


presence. He stopped to greet him. What were 
the words He addressed to Matthew? O, it was 
not in the words! Jesus was calling soul to soul, 
deep to deep! ‘ Follow me! ” 

Matthew was of the truth. His soul knew the 
shepherd. Everything else was swept aside as he 
pledged himself for that day and for all the days of 
his life: ‘‘ Jesus, gladly will I follow thee! ” Cast- 
ing the keys of his office to his successor, “ he left 
all, rose up, and followed him.” 


V 
THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 


“And there wrestled a man with him until the 
breaking of the day.”’—GENEsIs 32: 24. 







OD’S plan of salvation demands of men 
4 sincerity rather than strategy. The 
EAN ( ht approval of God is gained not by cun- 
SS_- ning, but by submission. An exile’s 
return to God is effected not by tactical arrange- 
ments for overcoming the consequence of sin, but 
by repentance and a contrite heart. 

The patriarch Jacob, for many years an exile 
from the land of his fathers, had just finished his 
journey from Mesopotamia to the little river Jab- 
bok which marked the boundary of his home coun- 
try of Canaan. He was ready to cross over this 
water, when he was dramatically stopped. In the 
darkness of night an unknown antagonist engaged 
him in a bitter struggle. At dawn Jacob was crip- 
pled for life, but he was permitted to enter Canaan. 
And it was after the crossing of the Jabbok that 
Jacob became known as Israel. 

This pivotal event in the life of the great patri- 
arch has always held great interest for Jews and 
Christians. Yet the story has more than historic 


45 


SGP — 
WY Kb as es 
A ASR.) 
Sy 











46 THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 


significance for us when we realize that we have to 
do with a truth which must take hold of us as much 
as it seized Jacob. It concerns the method of God 
in dealing with unrepentant man. That dramatic 
occurrence at Jabbok illustrates a truth which grips 
conscience and cripples pride, until peace with God 
is attained. 

The defeat of a strategist is presented to us. 
Jacob did not know, during that night, who his an- 
tagonist was. ‘“‘ There wrestled a man with him 
until the breaking of the day.” No doubt he 
prayed mightily to God for help while engaged in 
that desperate struggle which threatened all his 
fortunes. Was he praying to God to help him over- 
come God? Such a situation seems incongruous, 
at the first superficial glance, yet we shall not find 
it difficult to comprehend. In the morning follow- 
ing that night, Jacob declared: “‘ I have seen God 
face to face.””’ He was a new man. He bore a new 
name. The same experience makes new men today. 

A man may desire to return to God, and may 
cleverly arrange to nullify human and material 
hindrances to his reinstatement, only to meet the 
one combatant by whom he himself must be over- 
come before his return may be consummated. 

At middle-age, Jacob’s accomplishments might 
have illustrated the qualities that win success. He 
had entered a foreign country as a bare-handed 
refugee, yet within twenty years after his compul- 
sory emigration his wit and industry had made him 


THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 47 


a man of outstanding importance. In his homeland 
of Canaan he had left behind him a deservedly bad 
reputation. This fact, however, did not seem to 
cast any shadow over his fortunes. In Mesopo- 
tamia he had gained riches and power. Laban, his 
uncle, tried to cheat and trick him, but was no 
match for Jacob. By indomitable will power Jacob 
overcame all handicaps. Families and possessions 
came to him: Jacob “ increased exceedingly and 
had much cattle, and maidservants, and menserv- 
ants, and camels.” 

Yet Jacob was homesick. It came to him in the 
midst of his prosperity. The long exile had not 
blotted out remembrance of the country of his an- 
cestors. Perhaps the urge which had prompted his 
grandfather Abraham to forsake Ur of the Chal- 
dees for Palestine made itself felt in Jacob’s blood. 
Fertile Mesopotamia, yielding plentifully to him, 
was not home. Jacob could not crush out of his 
heart a longing for his childhood land. So Jacob 
was susceptible to the voice of the Lord which said: 
“return unto the land of thy fathers.” Restless- 
ness was caused by Jehovah, who had created 
Jacob for Himself. 

Inquietude of soul is the experience of estranged 
men to whom God is calling. Jacob was not hard- 
ened. His yearning to return to the land of his 
fathers and rehabilitate himself in the country from 
which his sins had cast him out, was also a yearn- 
ing to re-establish himself with God. Whether this 


48 THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 


was clear to Jacob at the first we do not know. 
Probably the deeper meaning of his inquietude 
was somewhat vague to him. Certainly he had no 
knowledge of the crippling contest in which he 
would need to engage before the consummation of 
his plans would be possible. The crossing of the 
Jabbok was to result not merely in an outward 
change, but in a vital inward change which a new 
name should forever commemorate. Because this 
was the real significance of his proposed return, the 
angels visited him to encourage his response. 

Cleverly Jacob arranged to nullify human and 
material hindrances to his repatriation. He re- 
solved to fight the foes to his return. This was his 
answer to God’s call. He faced his obstacles intel- 
ligently. There was in him no mental weakness or 
vacillations; in everything he exercised generalship 
and strategy. 

Domestic entanglements were not permitted to 
thwart Jacob’s purpose. Ina family conference he 
recited his plans in detail and gained the approval 
of his wives for the hegira, though it involved many 
discomforts and dangers. A wise man is seen, clev- 
erly handling a delicate situation without loss. 

Jacob’s possessions presented a problem. They 
could be moved but slowly. Laban would not let 
him go unhindered with what Jacob had acquired 
from him. Yet Jacob made his preparations for 
flight “‘ unawares to Laban.” It required the skill- 
ful planning of a strategist. He succeeded in plac- 


THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 49 


ing a “seven days’ journey ” between himself and 
Laban, and when his enraged father-in-law finally 
overtook him, Jacob’s tactical position was so 
greatly improved that he was able to force a satis- 
factory dissolution of his partnership with Laban. 

These problems were trivial, however, in com- 
parison with Jacob’s one great obstacle to the re- 
turn to Canaan. That obstacle was his brother 
Esau. Esau filled his horizon. Esau he had de- 
frauded twenty years before; Esau he feared; 
Esau he must propitiate. Esau was the only worthy 
combatant to be considered. Could he overcome 
Esau? On that question he knew his final success 
must hinge. That was the lion in the path demand- 
ing all his ingenuity. Conquer Esau, and he con- 
quered all. 

In handling the Esau situation, Jacob displayed 
the acme of his ability as a tactician. He sought 
the weak place in Esau’s armor. Esau would be a 
terrific fighter; but Esau was gullible. He must not 
threaten Esau. He must appease him. Indirectly, 
and without offence, he must impress Esau with the 
fact that his brother Jacob had become a man of 
importance. This would enhance the appearance 
of his subjection and deference to Esau. It would 
magnify Esau’s importance in his own eyes. So 
messengers were instructed to find Esau and an- 
nounce Jacob’s approach with the words “ thy 
servant Jacob.” They were instructed to quote 
Jacob as using the words ‘“‘ my lord” when refer- 


we 
560 THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 


ring to Esau. That would feed Esau’s vanity. It 
would indicate to Esau that though Jacob, by de- 
ceit, had won the blessing of the birthright, he had 
come to his senses during the intervening years and 
was ready to acknowledge the claims of Esau. 

An astounding gift of goats and camels and asses 
was planned by Jacob to break the first resistance 
of Esau’s ill-will. That meant tribute. It signified 
restitution. It intimated subjection. It was a plea 
for clemency. It was also flattery. The gift was 
. spread out so as to be displayed to advantage. It 
was forwarded “ drove by drove.” Again he care- 
fully instructed the bearers of the gifts. Nothing 
was left to chance. The first impression to be made 
on Esau was of prime importance. In detail he re- 
hearsed the method of procedure for the first drove, 
the second, the third and all that followed. Spe- 
cifically he emphasized the phraseology to be used. 
Always they were to say “‘my lord Esau” and 
“thy servant Jacob.” 

Jacob was confident he could handle Esau in 
conference after the gifts, the flattery and the trib- 
ute. He knew his brother. Esau was a man of 
sentiment, of passion, of feeling. He was governed 
by emotions. Jacob would play on those emotions 
as on a harp while he kept his own mind cool and 
calculating, alert to take advantage of Esau’s im- 
pulses. So he had conquered him before, so he 
would conquer him again. Everything was set 
and ready. 


THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 51 


Here, then, was an exile who had been suscept- 
ible to the voice of God bidding him to return, and 
who had cleverly arranged to overcome the human 
and material obstacles to his reinstatement. Should 
not so clever, so energetic, so earnest a man suc- 
ceed? Especially so since what he desired to 
achieve was undoubtedly what God wished him to 
accomplish? 

At the last moment, Jacob was stopped. Who 
would do that? Here at Jabbok, at the place of 
crossing over, he was effectually halted. It was not 
Esau whom he met and who blocked the way. It 
was an unknown combatant. It was one whom he 
had not taken into consideration. ‘‘ There wrestled 
a man with him until the breaking of the day.” In 
the morning, after a crippling all-night struggle to 
fight his way over, he learned who his antagonist 
was and he named the place Peniel, for he con- 
fessed, ‘‘I have seen God face to face.” It was 
God who hindered Jacob from crossing the Jabbok 
as a Strategist, a conquerer, a supplanter. Jacob 
had planned to meet Esau. He met God. 

Every crime against man is sin against God. 
That had not been clear to Jacob. It is the uni- 
versal truth affecting us all. David learned it later, 
at a place which was his Jabbok, when he sought to 
return to God after the incidents of Bathsheba and 
Uriah, and finally broke down in contrition toward 
God with the cry, “‘ Against thee, thee only, have I 
sinned and done this evil in thy sight.” The prod- 


52 THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 


igal son, when he comes to himself and returns 
home, puts first things first in his confession, ‘I 
have sinned against heaven.” 

Jacob learned that he needed first to get right 
with God. In his strategy he had overlooked that. 
It was a bitter mistake for him to suppose that he 
could rid himself of the consequences of his sins by 
cunningly appeasing or overcoming man, without 
first taking account of God. 

For us, too, if God has been making us homesick, 
the return to God is on the highway of repentance. 
‘“‘ Repent ye, and believe the Gospel.” “I tell you, 
except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.” 
“Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your 
sins may be blotted out.” “A broken and a con- 
trite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Strat- 
egy, or cunning, or clever arrangements with men 
and affairs may not be substituted for repentance 
and faith and a contrite heart. 

Take the case of a man who many years before 
defrauded a fellow-man in a business transaction. 
He may have prospered, yet suffers from inquiet- 
ude of soul. The scar remains through the years. 
He wishes to feel right about this matter. He has 
been attending church and reading the Bible. But 
he has not yet felt that he may take the sacrament. — 
He has a battle with himself and then seeks the 
man whom he had wronged and makes liberal resti- 
tution. His conscience tells him he did that which 
was right. Surely now he may partake of the sac- 


THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 53 


rament and have the joy of the Lord. A man who 
desires to return to God, and who arranges to wipe 
out the evil he has done to a fellow-man, surely has 
no other difficulty in his way. His sin was only 
against that certain man: inasmuch as he did it to 
that man only, surely his way is now clear. 

That was the situation of Jacob at Jabbok. The 
hour had come for the final advance which would 
mark his return to his homeland. He sent over 
Jabbok his wives and his eleven sons and all he 
had. Yet he himself delayed. He was alone. 
Were there misgivings? Had he overlooked any- 
thing in his calculations? Did forebodings trouble 
him, so he sought the solitude of which we read? 
Was there a presentiment that all was not right? 
If so, such forebodings were dramatically realized. 
Out of the dark a hand seized him. It gripped 
tightly. What did it mean? Of course, an enemy. 
Who else would hinder him? It was a challenge. 
Very well, he would meet it. It must be Esau. A 
flash of light fell on the man’s face. No; it was not 
Esau. Who was this combatant? Whoever he 
was, Jacob would overcome him. Not now, at the 
point of the consummation of all his plans, might 
any human force thwart him. Through his mind 
flashed thoughts of all the years of his work, now in 
jeopardy; of Leah, of Rachel, of his eleven sons; 
of Canaan, the land of his fathers—God help him 
triumph! 

“There wrestled a man with him until the 


54 THE DEFEAT OF THE STRATEGIST 


breaking of the day,”-——and Jacob could not pre- 
vail. In unyielding embrace the antagonists held 
each other through the long hours of an endless- 
seeming night. Then a hopeless dawn began to 
break. Gradually Jacob’s strength ebbed. Finally 
the unknown combatant, with a revelation of re- 
serve power unused, crippled Jacob for life with a 
touch on the hollow of his thigh. ‘‘ Therefore the 
children of Israel eat not of the sinew which 
shrank, which is upon the hollow of the thigh, unto 
this day: because he touched the hollow of Jacob’s 
thigh in the sinew that shrank.” What otherwise 
could only have meant an accident to a progenitor 
of their race, was remembered as a perpetual cus- 
tom, because the universal spiritual significance of 
the event should never be lost. 

Jacob was vanquished. Someone greater than 
Jacob held the pass to the land of his fathers and 
reunion with his loved ones gone before. Only by 
permission of this One, and His blessing, might 
Jacob enter. Jacob had met God face to face. 
God had conquered him. But he had conquered 
him to bless him. He had become a new man— 
God’s man. Self-will was crippled. On the other 
side of Jabbok a great man went limping. But he 
had that new and wonderful name, Israel, “‘ Prince 
with God.” ‘The strategist was defeated. But the 
penitent was victorious. 


VI 
GOD’S AMERICA 


“ Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, 
but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto 
Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a 
widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time 
of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was 
cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” 

—LUKE 4: 25-26, 


TwWRHE founders of America sought freedom 
Fy LSS to worship God. 

= The Jewish nation offers the only 
Ro Yo parallel to the religious beginnings of 
this American Republic. Palestine was settled by 
the descendants of that Abraham who came to it as 
a pilgrim from distant Chaldee seeking the free ex- 
ercise of Jehovah worship apart from the prevalent 
idolatry of his native land. The later Jews, of 
Jesus’ day, still believed intensely in their nation 
as God’s Israel. 

Jesus attempted to enlarge the horizon of the 
Nazareth Jews on the Sabbath day when He ad- 
dressed them in their synagogue. He did not wish 
to break down their sense of being God’s chosen 
people, but to show them the Israel God meant. 


55 





56 GOD’S AMERICA 


Jewish patriotism had come to believe that God 
favored Israel for her own sake, rather than for the 
purpose of making Abraham’s seed a blessing to all 
the nations of the earth. God’s good-will was 
blindly accepted as the special prerogative of the 
Jews. But Jesus declared in their synagogue: 
‘“‘ God’s favor has not been, and will not be monop- 
olized by Israel. In the time of Elias, though Israel 
was in dire distress, God’s favor was signally be- 
stowed on a foreigner, a widow of Sarepta, a city of 
Sidon. With many lepers in Israel, at a later day, 
crying for healing, God’s kindness singled out a 
foreigner, a Syrian, for its object.” 

Patriots who would believe nothing good beyond 
their own borders could not endure such a recital of 
history. The first bewilderment of Jesus’ audience 
quickly gave way to bitter resentment for their in- 
jured national pride. The citizens cast Jesus out 
of the synagogue and attempted to kill Him. 

America, settled by the Pilgrim Fathers, the 
Puritans, the Quakers, and the Scotch, has had a 
religious consciousness stamped upon itself as 
God’s America. 

American patriotism has ample foundations for 
declaring this land to be ‘“ God’s Country.” But 
we may be sure that Jesus would lead the American 
thought of this generation to the conviction that 
God has made America great because He has a defi- 
nite plan for her, which is a sacred trust. An un- 
willingness to be a blessing to the world means 


GOD’S AMERICA 57 


America’s betrayal of God’s confidence in her. If 
America is to fulfill her mission for God, America 
will first need to have a great national revival of 
religion. The Jesus who spoke to His people in 
Nazareth would have America rise to a great pa- 
triotism with an international vision of service; 
would have Americans believe in the America God 
meant, God’s America. 

The relationship on which Christian men may 
pride themselves is not based on union to each 
other in one national. family, but on union to each 
other as human beings without regard to nation or 
race. Men may justly feel themselves honored as 
creatures of God, who may also become children of 
one Heavenly Father by accepting Jesus as their 
Saviour. But since one’s nationality is not of one’s 
own choice, the only worthy national pride is that 
of the service one’s country may contribute to 
the world. 

Jesus was not ashamed of being a Jew. No Jew 
worthy of the name ever has been ashamed of his 
wonderful people. No one can question Jesus’ loy- 
alty to His own race. When the occasion for it 
arose, Jesus proclaimed to a foreigner, a Samaritan, 
that superiority of His own people which God had 
decreed, in the words: ‘“ Salvation is of the Jews ” 
(John 4: 22). To Jesus it was a matter of pride 
that God had promised their father Abraham that 
‘in his seed should be blessed all the nations of the 
earth.” Yet this conception of the lofty mission of 


58 GOD’S AMERICA 


His nation made Him impatient with the Jewish 
provincialism displayed at Nazareth. 

Jesus owed much to the Jewish race. Unques- 
tionably He was mindful of this fact. The mission 
of Jesus could not have been fulfilled had He been 
of any other nationality. Being born a Jew and 
imbibing Jewish traditions, having the use of the 
Jewish moulds of thought and the tools of a spirit- 
ual language, by the providence of God these be- 
came invaluable assets to Him. As a Roman ora 
Grecian, Jesus would have been impossible, hu- 
manly speaking. 

Yet the conscious possession of the advantages 
of being a Jew did not make Jesus a bigoted Jewish 
nationalist. Jesus as a Jingoist is unthinkable. At 
a time of intense patriotic aspirations Jesus deci- 
sively disappointed the expectations of His fellow 
townsmen. So soon as His developing talents pre- 
saged a brilliant career, and He attracted attention 
to Himself as a man whose influence would be felt 
in contemporaneous life, an expectation was kindled 
that He might measure up to the requirements for 
a “‘ David’s Son,” to restore the glory of Jewry. 
He shattered that hope whenever it arose. 

_ The episode at Nazareth was not an isolated in- 
cident of Jesus’ international attitude. A Roman 
soldier, a centurion, declared his faith in Jesus’ 
spiritual effectiveness, and the Master’s enthusiasm 
was winged to a height from which He beheld the 
peoples from afar inheriting equally with the fore- 


GOD’S AMERICA 59 


fathers of Israel the privileges of Divine favor. 
“Many,” He declared on that occasion, ‘ shall 
come from the east and from the west, and sit down 
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
God.” Once, likewise, when two Greek visitors 
were brought to Him, Jesus’ imagination pushed 
into the future as He prophesied that He should 
draw unto Himself “all” men. With unmistak- 
able significance, on another occasion, the nation- 
ality of the one leper who had the grace of thank- 
fulness, was pointed out in the words: “ and he was 
a Samaritan.” An illustration of Jesus’ broad in- 
ternationalism is in His story of ‘‘ The Good Sa- 
maritan.” In that exquisite character sketch Jesus 
deliberately created His hero of a despised race. 
On the dark background of Jewish narrowness and 
prejudice, as represented by Priest and Levite, 
Jesus portrayed the glorious humanitarianism of 
a foreigner—a Samaritan. What superb daring 
that was! 

Thus, in the short records of Jesus’ career, five 
instances of His international temper have already 
been noted. These references do not exhaust the 
material on which to base a study of Jesus’ mind, 
but they are sufficient for the purpose. Jesus strove 
to enlarge the range of human sympathies beyond 
national boundary lines, He was the first great 
Cosmopolitan-—the citizen of the world rather than 
the Jewish citizen. With Him, the distinction on 
which men might pride themselves was not particu- 


60 GOD’S AMERICA 


larly based on their relationship to each other in 
one national family, but as human beings created 
of one God. 

So every nation which knows Jesus has readily 
appropriated Him for her own. There is little ra- 
cial antipathy to overcome in accepting Jesus Him- 
self, even by those who otherwise are of anti-semitic 
prejudice. The children of every nation say their 
little prayers to Him and think of Him as of their 
own nation and tongue. The painters of all na- 
tions, in presenting their ideals of the face of Jesus, 
show how they think of Him as of their own na- 
tionality. The Italian study of His face has a touch 
of the predominant Italian countenance, the Ger- 
man likewise, so also the Spanish. Jesus has ap- 
pealed distinctively to every nation: He is not the 
Jew, He is the man of all countries. And early 
Christianity showed its amazing results in a thor- 
ough Jew like Simon Peter, as he was brought to 
the conviction he uttered: ‘“ God has taught me not 
to call any man common or unclean.”” The tremen- 
dous influence of Jesus transformed Saul of Tarsus, 
a ‘‘ Pharisee of the Pharisees,”’ so that he declared 
at Athens: ‘‘ God has made of one flesh all men 
who dwell on earth.” 

No American worthy of the name fails to ap- 
preciate this wonderful country. No matter how 
intense a patriot any American may be, he can 
hardly over-estimate the glory of America. We 
who have been born beneath the Stars and Stripes 


GOD’S AMERICA 61 


feel justified to echo the words of old: ‘“ Let my 
right hand forget her cunning—let my tongue 
cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not 
Jerusalem (America) above my chief joy! ” 

But it is possible for intense Americanism to fall 
into the same error as beset the Jewish patriotism 
of Jesus’ day, which supposed that God favored 
Israel for her own sake rather than for an interna- 
tional mission, for a “‘ blessing to all the nations of 
the earth.” Jesus’ message to the Jews of His day 
was: “Let us think in terms of humanity, not 
merely in terms of one section of humanity—even 
if that section be glorious Jewry.” And Jesus’ 
message to America is: ‘‘ Let us think in terms of 
humanity, not merely in terms of one section of 
humanity—even if that section be glorious Amer- 
ica.” To nations, as to individuals, the law of 
heaven is, ‘“‘ Whosoever of you will be the chiefest 
shall be servant of all.” 

What is the mission of America? Is there a 
purpose discernible as God’s plan? How could 
America serve the world? 

No student of history expects America to rival 
ancient Greece in contributions of learning and art. 
Nor can one deceive himself regarding the effec- 
tiveness of “ culture ” to bless the world. The les- 
sons of history, in the stories of national grandeur 
and achievement and then moral decay and degen- 
eracy, are too often read to permit illusions. And 
the contemporaneous newspaper history of man- 


RZ GOD’S AMERICA 


kind records only that rascals, if they be educated, 
become educated rascals; and that, whether indi- 
viduals or nations. 

May our “blessing to all the nations of the 
earth ” be our political institutions? Have they any 
saving power? Are we not compelled to realize, as 
we read of the pure democracies of the ancient 
Greek city-states, that liberty without righteous- 
ness soon degenerates into license and prepares for 
a new cycle of autocracy? 

Have we scientific discoveries and the applica- 
tion of them to practical use, which will really 
bring blessings to the world? We now have the 
telephone and telegraph and automobile and the 
airplane and the radio. Yet what all have the 
ancients had? Yet they used their achievements 
only to destroy one another, and powerful empires 
have obliterated themselves so only the archzolo- 
gist can restore even the memory of them. The 
secret of many engineering feats, and of the pro- 
duction of certain metals, remains buried with the 
nations who have descended into oblivion. How 
much else of achievement is also forgotten in China, 
in Egypt, in Kish, in Peru? 

Do we suppose some moral reforms or social 
ameliorations really hold in them that revolution- 
ary new life which the world needs? We have Pro- 
hibition: so have the Turks, and have had for 
centuries. Have we any new contributions to eco- 
nomic welfare, the expectation from which might 


GOD’S AMERICA 63 


be that the end of such materialism would be any- 
thing else than confusion, except first human nature 
be changed? Is it not tragic blindly to trust in the 
effectiveness of social palliatives and legislative 
corrections? Christian America is entitled to laws 
which guarantee respect for her religious institu- 
tions and opinions. But there is no regenerating 
power in parliamentary enactments. So long as 
the tree is evil the fruit will be evil; the legislative 
shears may cut off here a fruit and there a fruit, 
but so long as the tree itself is evil it will express 
itself, if not in one branch, then in another, in new 
evil fruit. 

America’s immense wealth is no conspicuous 
blessing or service to the world. America is not the 
first great banker nation the earth has known. 
And the ability to loan nations money is not doing 
anything for their salvation, or for the bringing in 
of the Kingdom of God. Wealth only offers fuel 
for the fire of the world’s self-immolation. 

Many Christians hope America will unite in the 
League of Nations. But surely America will not 
deceive herself into believing that any pact, con- 
tract or alliance for peace will endure so long as 
there is greed, hatred and jealousy in the hearts of 
nations. Nor will anger and malice cure them- 
selves. The world’s statesmen anticipate further 
and more terrible wars, and a spirit of optimism, 
founded on unregenerate human nature, is indeed 
blindness in face of the facts as they exist today. 


64 GOD’S AMERICA 


America could give the world the gospel of Jesus 
Christ, which has power to save. This would be 
the greatest contribution of blessing any nation has 
ever made to the world. But let America be clear 
that this involves not primarily money and organ- 
ization, but sincerity of belief in Christianity itself. 

The nature of the Foreign Missionary enterprise 
is rapidly changing. With the development of the 
world-vicinity by means of the radio transmission 
of information everywhere, missionary propaganda 
must meet a new test. Soon there will be no more 
heathen in the sense of those who know nothing of 
the outside world. Even today every murder trial 
in America entails heavy telegraph charges for 
transmission of all its details to such foreign lands 
as formerly were generally classified as Foreign 
Missionary Territory. ‘The missionary can no 
longer deliver a message which has not the back- 
ground of the land which sent him. The only 
preaching of the gospel under American auspices 
which will be convincing will be that of the life of 
America. If America be the land of murderers, 
bootleggers, Sabbath desecrators, pleasure-seeking, 
money-mad, God-neglecting people, she may just 
as well eliminate sending men and money for mis- 
sions, because her own life will more than counter- 
balance the effect of her attempted propaganda. 

If America is to justify God’s confidence in her, 
America will need to listen to Jesus Christ as she 
has not yet done. A national revival of religion 


GOD’S AMERICA 65 


must precede any attempt of America to be a bless- 
ing to all the nations of the earth. 

Or is it folly to speak of a distinct purpose of 
God with this nation? Shall the following state- 
ments express our convictions? The supreme con- 
cern for America is America. Qur wealth is of our 
own creation, due to our own superb abilities, and 
in no sense given us as a trust. Our national an- 
cestry means nothing. The coming of Pilgrims, 
Puritans, Quakers, Scotch, however interesting a 
theory may be built on the peculiar nature of their 
emigration to these shores, yet was an accidental 
matter. We are great because we deserve to be 
great and our superiority is inevitable and must 
always endure. So God particularly favored 
America, if God had anything to do with it at all, 
because God recognized the intrinsic worth and at- 
tainments of Americans. 

Jesus as patriot spoke to the Jewish patriots in 
the synagogue of Nazareth. It was His desire to 
enlarge rather than belittle the glory of Jewry. In 
place of the provincialism of His co-patriots, He 
offered a world-wide vision of national service. 
Jesus would not minimize Israel’s pride in her pos- 
session of Divine favor, but have her realize why 
this favor was extended, and that it constituted a 
trust God reposed in her. 

Our Christian convictions do not lead us to les- 
sen our glorying in America. We believe God 
watched at Columbia’s cradle. The Almighty Him- 


66 GOD’S AMERICA 


self directed the infant steps of this people and led 
her to the discovery of the rich treasures with which 
He has endowed her hills and valleys, her moun- 
tains, rivers and plains. As over night, the magic 
land has arisen and her glories and her wealth have 
become the astonishment of all the world and have 
drawn all nations unto her. But America, the 
chosen, has her mission to fulfill, a sacred trust im- 
posed of God to send forth to all the world the 
message of salvation, of good-will and international 
brotherhood made effective by her own faith and 
devotion to Jesus Christ. 

Anything less than a predominantly Christian 
America, God’s America, doing effective missionary 
work, sending one hundred missionaries for every 
one now sent, with her developing radio broadcast- 
ing preaching the gospel to every creature, will be a 
betrayal of God’s confidence and the end must be 
judgment. 

If, by the grace of God, America may repent, 
know her mission, purify herself, and justify the 
ideals of her God for her, then the proudest asser- 
tion a man might make would be “ I am an Ameri- 
can.” And then all the suffering of all the ages 
wherein men died for the hope of the Kingdom of 
God, for universal liberty and fraternity, will be 
crowned with glorious achievement: 


“ Of such a land have men in dungeons dreamed, 
And with the vision brightening in their eyes 
Gone smiling to the fagot and the sword.” 


VII 
THE AGED CHRIST 


“ Hés head and hairs were white like wool, as white 
as snow.”’—Rev. 1:14. 


Y¥KHE world was providentially prepared 
for the coming of Jesus. Equally is 
J (70 it true that in many respects the 
9 2% world was providentially unprepared 
for Jesus’ coming. 

The unity of the world under the Roman Em- 
pire, the world peace, the yearning of mankind, the 
failure of Jewish legalism, these and many other 
circumstances have frequently been brought to at- 
tention as illustrating how God sent forth His son 
in “ the fulness of the time.” 

This supplementary truth, however, is evident, 
that the world was providentially unprepared, at 
the time of Jesus’ coming, for preserving to poster- 
ity certain features of Jesus’ external life which are 
of utmost interest and seemingly serious impor- 
tance. There must have been deep divine reasons 
for these irreparable losses. 

On the isle of Patmos John, the beloved disciple, 
received a dazzlingly vivid revelation of the aged 


67 





68 THE AGED CHRIST 


Christ. Jesus materialized Himself before John in 
a form expressive of His infinite years: “ his head 
and his hairs were white like wool, as white as 
snow.” The apparition shocked John. Never 
before had he so seen Jesus. He tells us that when 
he thus beheld Him he “ fell at his feet as dead.” 
He knew that Jesus had been from everlasting; but 
he swooned when “ the Ancient of Days ” was dra- 
matically unveiled. 

The revelation was not meant to be a secret. 
The contrary was solemnly emphasized. ‘ Write 
the things which thou hast seen,” were Jesus’ words 
immediately upon John’s recovery. The Patmos 
portrayal of Jesus was essential revelation. We 
need it today. The dazzlingly vivid realization of 
the eternal Christ hurls mortal men in awe to their 
faces before Him. This age, with its tendency to 
colossal egotism and flippant irreverence, needs to- 
see again the deep foundations of the Rock of 
Ages, and behold on Calvary that One in whom was 
the culmination of the infinite wisdom of God. 

The revelation which unveiled Christ as an old, 
old man, was a vital corrective for such historic 
imagination as would center attention exclusively 
on the human Jesus; and the providential unpre- 
paredness of the world, in certain respects, when 
Jesus came, emphasizes the purpose of God to pre- 
vent mankind from losing sight of the eternal 
Christ Who alone is the basis of our confidence in 
God’s redemptive work. 


THE AGED CHRIST 69 | 


Affection for the historic Jesus is natural to the 
Christian. It is spiritually exhilarating to have 
made real to us the Jesus of history. With rever- 
ent hands to reconstruct the scenes amid which the 
Master lived is the the devotional equivalent of the 
Easter morning bringing of spices and fine linen for 
the body of Jesus. Who would have the temerity 
to comment on it disparagingly? Eagerly Jesus’ 
devotees scan every new book with the title of 
“Life of Christ.” If to any degree it yields a 
fresh viewpoint on His story, it is rushed into many 
editions. The chief demand made of such a treat- 
ise is that it make Jesus more real. The desire is to 
see Him again as He walked of old in Palestine. 

There is keen sense of loss in not having seen 
Jesus in the flesh nor having had preserved the 
external features of His activities as helps toward 
understanding Him. In compensation for such 
loss, there is eager searching for information con- 
cerning the outward aspects of Jesus’ ministry. 
The geography, customs, manners, history of His 
land and times have become of vital interest. A 
spade thrust revealing a single line of writing on an 
ancient stone, affecting the story of Jesus, moves 
the world. Details about the “ Life and Times of 
Jesus” become invaluable treasures of Christian 
knowledge. To have Jesus vividly portrayed as 
He lived of old, that the distance of the years might 
be bridged, is a longingly voiced desire to which no 
disciple is insensible. 


70 THE AGED CHRIST 


“T wish that His hands had been placed on my head, 
That Hts arms had been thrown around me, 
And that I might have seen His kind look when He 
said, 
“Let the little ones come unto Me. 


+ 33 


Yet the futility of the search for details of Jesus’ 
earthly life is pathetic. A few words of doubtful 
authenticity, which offer a vague description of 
Jesus’ physical appearance, become tragically im- 
portant. What emphatically impresses the mind of 
the student is the meagerness of reliable informa- 
tion concerning the outward aspects of Jesus’ life. 
The things that are lacking in the gospels are note- 
worthy. Seemingly vital, information is lost irre- 
trievably, and the knowledge of Him which His 
contemporaries had is as completely expunged as 
that only specimen of His handwriting which was 
committed to the sand. 

By the will of God in sending Jesus before per- 
mitting some slight scientific developments, the 
world was unprepared for registering on photo- 
graphic plates for posterity the facial expressions 
of Jesus or perpetuating in moving pictures His 
gestures of interpretations, His smiles, His tears, 
His frowns, His moving lips, His kneeling in 
prayer, His arms in benedictions, His hands in the 
breaking of bread. There is no photograph of the 
dearest face mankind has ever looked upon—full 
of grace and truth—the Face of God. 

There was no preparation of the world for re- 


THE AGED CHRIST 71 


cording and reproducing Jesus’ voice. So much of 
the meaning of words is dependent on the tones 
used in uttering them. Let us hear words spoken 
and the meaning of them is much more certainly 
understood than when read. What wealth of in- 
struction is conveyed by an inflection. Accents and 
pauses interpret the content of an utterance. The 
world would have had a priceless treasure in a 
phonographic record of Jesus’ voice when He re- 
cited the Lord’s Prayer. Think of hearing, today, 
the actual voice of Jesus in His intercessory prayer, 
or the Sermon on the Mount, or the invitation, 
‘“‘Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy 
laden, and I will give you rest.” But there is no 
record of the Voice of Voices. 

Why was it granted others to see and hear all 
these things, and they be forever hidden and silent 
to us? God might so easily have permitted the 
necessary scientific development. The world was 
unprepared in the gospel day to render such 
service for the historic Jesus. The loss to us is 
too poignant to be dismissed with any explana- 
tion less than that we have to do with providential 
unpreparedness decreed by God for most serious 
reasons. 

It was not the will of God that devotion to the 
historic Jesus should contribute to a diminishing 
consciousness of Him as the God of the ages, by 
whom and for whom all things were created. 
The Patmos revelation of Christ as an old, old 


72 THE AGED CHRIST 


man was an additional corrective against the cen- 
tering of men’s attention on the human aspects 
of Jesus. 

If we may reverently speak of Jesus as appearing 
“out of character,” it was when “ the Ancient of 
Days ” emptied Himself of glory in His earthly 
role as a youth. His enemies were dumbfounded 
by His assertion: “‘ Abraham rejoiced to see my 
day: and he saw it and was glad.” It had been two 
thousand years since Abraham. They retorted: 
“Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou 
seen Abraham?” With their thoughts only on the 
historic Jesus, they sought to kill Him when He 
replied: ‘‘ Verily, verily I say unto you, before 
Abraham was, I am.”’ The eternal Christ walked 
the earth with a consciousness of His heavenly pre- 
existence, “‘ knowing that the Father had given all 
things into his hands, and that he was come from 
God and went to God.” We hear Him pray: 
“Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own 
self with the glory which I had with thee before the 
world was.” It was of Jesus of Nazareth that God 
the Father testified: “‘ Thou, Lord, in the beginning 
hast laid the foundations of the earth; and the 
heavens are the work of thine hands: they shall 
perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall 
wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt 
thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but 
thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.— 
Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for 


THE AGED CHRIST 73 


ever and ever.” This is the Alpha and the Omega, 
the first and the last. 


“Crown Him the Lord of years, The Potentate of 
time; 
Creator of the rolling spheres, Ineffably sublime.” 


Our day has a new sense of agedness. Discover- 
ies in geology, astronomy and archeology have told 
of the hoary antiquity of the universe. We need 
the realization of Jesus’ existence reaching into in- 
finity back of this world. Such dazzling conception 
may well hurl mortal men in awe to their faces 
before Him. An age of egotism and irreverence 
needs to know the foundations of the Rock of Ages. 
The Cross of Calvary was the matured plan of the 
infinite God and of the Lamb slain from the foun- 
dations of the world. Will the wisdom of any man 
cause it to topple over? 

John knew Jesus. Surely John needed no cor- 
rective vision? No other of the apostles knew 
Jesus so well as did John. What more did John 
need to know about the Lord? Often fond memo- 
ries crowded his mind and again he communed with 
Jesus and again laid his head on the breast of the 
friend of the other days. Bright was John’s mental 
image of the young man with black hair, and if He 
had a beard, of black beard, or ruddy, or light—as 
it may have been—we know not. But the memory 
of the historic Jesus was more vivid to John than 
we may ever realize. 


74 THE AGED CHRIST 


Then John went to quiet Patmos. It was on the 
Lord’s day. John was in the spirit. We may hear 
him pray: ‘‘ Speak to me once more, Lord Jesus, 
that I may write to Thy churches. Let me see 
Thee once more! ” The clouds parted. There 
came “the revelation of Jesus Christ,’ which He 
made of Himself to John. The beloved face ap- 
peared. The shock was frightful. He beheld the 
aged Christ. The exceeding whiteness, the glisten- 
ing, blinding snow-whiteness revealed His exceed- 
ing agedness. It was not a vision of old age which 
means, aS with us, weakness, finiteness, senile de- 
cay: It was a portrayal of agedness in the glory of 
strength and power, venerable as the stars, majestic 
as the sun. Jesus was an old, old man: “ his head 
and his hairs were white like wool, as white as 
snow.” No wonder John “ fell at his feet as dead.” 

In deep tones those words reverberate with 
which the same beloved disciple John begins the 
Prologue to his story of the historic Jesus: 

‘“‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word 
was with God, and the Word was God. The same 
was in the beginning with God. All things were 
made by him; and without him was not anything 
made that was made. And the Word was made 
flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, 
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full 
of grace and truth.” 


VIII 
THE THRILL OF EASTER 


“ Supposing him to be the gardener.’—Joun 20:15. 


HE commonplace is the normal. It is 

sensible to expect commonplace hap- 
| OG 8 penings. Common sense leads one to 
wy G2 anticipate that tomorrow the sun will 
rise in the east and set in the west. That which 
common sense expects is the commonplace. 

The art of comfortable living consists in adjust- 
ing one’s Self to the usual processes of nature. Dis- 
aster is avoided by accepting as inevitable fact that 
water flows downward, that the seasons rotate in 
order, that the law of gravity is impersonal. 

The expectation of the matter-of-fact in nature 
does not, however, predicate the commonplace in 
the realm of God’s grace. Jesus’ parents once erred 
in reaching a conclusion by supposition. On their 
return from Jerusalem they missed Jesus, but 
“‘ supposing him to have been in the company, went 
a day’s journey.” ‘The supposition of the common- 
place was natural, but mistaken, for Jesus was 
in Jerusalem in the temple. Mary Magdalene’s 
commonplace supposition on Easter morning was 


75 








76 THE THRILL OF EASTER 


equally erroneous. She looked upon and talked 
with Jesus “‘ supposing him to be the gardener.”’ 

There is no thrill in the commonplace. Mary 
Magdalene came to the garden of Joseph of Ari- 
mathea early on Easter morning. She brought 
sweet spices with which to anoint the lifeless body 
of Jesus. The tomb wherein she had seen His body 
laid, on Friday evening, was empty this morning. 
Mary spoke to a man standing near her at the sep- 
ulchre, begging information concerning the disap- 
pearance of her Lord’s body: “ Sir, if thou have 
borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, 
and I will take him away.” 

Easter is a thrill. There can be no Easter with- 
out the thrill. If the thrill is absent there is posi- 
tive proof that Easter is still meaningless. Easter 
can never be commonplace. No thrill—no Easter. 
Easter cannot be celebrated prosaically. Only un- 
belief silences the Easter bells and reduces Easter 
to a matter-of-fact, formal, calendar date. Do we 
know Easter? Do we need to confess an absence 
of a genuine Easter thrill? If we must admit a lack 
of the Easter joy, let us pray that our thoughts of 
Mary Magdalene’s Easter experience may bring us 
the overwhelming message we need. For we know 
that the Easter story was the source of early Chris- 
tian enthusiasm: and we know something vital is 
lacking if we have no part or share in that ecstacy. 

The discovery of Mary Magdalene that Jesus 
was not dead, but living, burst on her bewildered 


THE THRILL OF EASTER 77 


mind when Jesus uttered her name. Substitute 
your name for hers. If you feel a presence by your 
side, listen for your name to be spoken. ‘“ Jesus 
saith unto her, Mary! ” 

The thrill of Easter, which can come only to 
Christ’s disciples, consists in the realization that 
one’s friendship with Jesus has brought not only an 
elevating fellowship with the noblest character of 
history, but, far exceeding that, has resulted in an 
intimate living companionship with One Who is as 
alive today as ever He has been, is as near us today 
as He ever was to His disciples of old, and Who is 
not only good and the inspiration to the best within 
us, but is God, with all the power and wealth of the 
Creator of the worlds, whose desire it is to bless 
our friendship without limit in preparation for our 
entrance into His eternal kingdom. 

Jesus would not have been forgotten even had 
there been no Easter. 

No friendship of ours with good men and women 
fails to enrich our lives. No companionship with 
the great and noble souls of past ages, through the 
written words they have left us, is without impress 
on our own characters. How much more must this 
have been true of those who had the privilege of 
knowing Jesus when He walked this earth? Asso- 
ciation with the historic Jesus wrought transforma- 
tion of character in those who became acquainted 
with Him. Even had there been no Easter, could 
Simon Peter ever be the same again after three 


78 THE THRILL OF EASTER 


years of knowing Jesus? Do you suppose he 
could ever have forgotten the Master? Or could 
Matthew have gone back to his old life unchanged? 
No, Jesus would never have been forgotten. The 
story of His life would have been lovingly pre- 
served in oral and written tradition. It would have 
come to us, even if there had been no Easter: even 
if Jesus were not Divine. The lure of Jesus’ per- 
sonality would have defied oblivion. He would be 
in our Halls of Fame as an “ immortal” among 
the children of men. 

Had there been no Easter there would not have 
been the expunging of Jesus’ name, but love and 
admiration only would have remained in the hearts 
of Jesus’ first disciples. And those who would have 
learned to know Jesus by way of the memorials left 
posterity by His first friends, would have endorsed 
the love and esteem of His first friends for Him and 
so would have the image of a nobler Plato, a more 
winsome Socrates, and an even greater humani- 
tarian Abraham Lincoln. 

The worship of Jesus would not have developed, 
however, had there been no Easter. Jesus’ friends 
would not have written hymns to Him, built 
churches for Him, prayed to Him, worshipped Him 
as God, talked to Him daily, gone to the uttermost 
ends of the earth to proclaim Him, would not have 
joyfully died for Him. Easter alone caused that 
worship. Mary, and all the disciples, not only 
adored the memory of Jesus during the remainder 


THE THRILL OF EASTER 79 


of their lives, but worshipped Him as God because 
of the conviction that He had been resurrected 
from the dead. Had Easter only meant that Jesus 
had escaped death on Friday by tricking His ene- 
mies, that He had shammed death or had been 
merely in a comatose state, there could have been 
no ecstatic worshipping. Easter meant, not that 
Jesus was still living, but that He had arisen from 
the dead. The chief representative of the early 
Church group formulated the essential doctrine of , 
the resurrection in his statement: ‘“ If thou shalt 
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt 
believe in thine heart that God hath raised him 
from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” 

Without Easter, the loving memory of Jesus 
treasured in the hearts of His friends would have 
been poignant grief. There is no contradiction in 
this. Memory, even loving memory, may be a 
cruel tyrant. When ‘‘ Memory is the only friend 
that grief can call its own,” how bitter may be that 
sweet memory, if it is without hope! Without the 
Easter thrill and climax, the coming of Jesus into 
the lives of His friends would have ended in an un- 
fulfilled longing, whether the nature of the longing 
would have been definitely clear to them or not: 
something would have been lacking; there would 
have been a dread void. 

Do we not appreciate what Paul meant when he 
said that we, Jesus’ friends, “are of all men most 
miserable” if there be no Easter? This would 


80 THE THRILL OF EASTER 


have been true at the first because Jesus had made 
His friends feel more deeply and longingly, reach~ 
out for the unknown more insistently, than they 
would have done had they not known Him. Hearts 
were more susceptible to cruel disappointments 
than could have been the case had Jesus not so 
strongly lured them. The best of His friends would 
have wandered on among the empty tombs near 
Calvary till in despair they would have died of 
broken hearts. If there had been no Easter Jesus 
would indeed have left His friends ‘‘ of all men 
most miserable.”’ 

Easter ecstatically satisfied the longing of Jesus’ 
friends. It was more than joy over the restored 
companionship of an earthly friend. It was the 
dazzling confirmation of their incipient and falter- 
ing faith in His Divinity. It fulfilled, and more 
than fulfilled what previously they had scarce 
dared to believe; that their Friend was truly the 
eternal Son of God. They found themselves to be 
intimates of God. 

Easter was a confirmation to believers, not an 
offer of proof to unbelievers. Only to His friends 
did Jesus show Himself after His resurrection. He 
did not go to Pilate, nor present Himself to Annas, 
nor appear to Caiaphas, nor manifest Himself to 
the Sanhedrin. Mary Magdalene visited with Jesus 
after His resurrection, on several occasions Jesus 
showed Himself to His disciples, He proved Him- 
self alive to above five hundred persons at one time, 


THE THRILL OF EASTER 81 


but they were “ brethren.” There was no Easter 
thrill for the enemies of the Lord. By the same 
principle on which Jesus refused the demand of 
His enemies for “ signs and wonders,” during His 
ministry, He refused the demonstration of His 
resurrection. It was not God’s method for bring- 
ing men to saving faith. Such faith must be cre- 
ated without compelling objective evidence. Man 
may not demand from God the proofs he may de- 
sire. Ofttimes Jesus could have prayed to His 
Father and have had endorsement of the coming of 
“more than twelve legions of angels.’’ Consist- 
ently He refrained from such use of His power to 
create faith. Easter had no message to Jesus’ ene- 
mies: it was a confirmation to His friends of their 
highest hopes. Easter is not a challenge to unbe- 
lief: Easter is a confirmation to loving hearts: ‘‘ he 
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I 
will love him and will manifest myself to him.” 
That human creatures of this earth may actually 
walk and talk with Almighty God, the Creator of 
the universe, is the most staggering thought which 
mortal mind may receive. Yet this was just ex- 
actly the experience of Mary Magdalene on Easter 
morning. She found herself talking with the Son 
of God. Her companionship which had been with 
the best of men and noblest of teachers, became 
exalted into a personal friendship with God. The 
ecstacy which must have resulted from the realiza- 
tion that Jesus was living, and that He was living 


82 THE THRILL OF EASTER 


because He was risen from the dead, and that He 
was risen from the dead because He was more than 
man, the ecstacy of this realization cannot be stated 
in human words. That was the thrill of Easter. 
Easter and the commonplace, like life and death, 
are mutually contradictory. 

Easter forever banishes the commonplace from 
life because it is a continuing experience. It did 
not mean that Mary Magdalene, and the others, 
were to have a living friend who was God to be 
with them on Easter day, or for a few additional 
days of sojourn with them, but that they were to 
have that living, real, personal Friend with them 
all the rest of their lives and forever. Their con- 
tinuing Friend was God, with all the power and 
wealth of the Creator of the worlds, whose desire 
it would be to bless the friendship without limit in 
preparation for their entrance into His eternal 
kingdom. Who can measure the expectations of 
benefits to be derived from such a friendship? Do 
you understand why, without flinching, “ they went 
through peril, toil and pain; they met the tyrants’ 
brandished steel, the lions’ gory mane; they bowed 
their necks the death to feel ’’—nor would they 
avoid it by uttering one single disloyal word? 
They had His presence! 

Easter meant that Jesus’ disciples would always 
have their risen Lord immediately with them. Dur- 
ing the forty days following Easter He defined, by 
illustration, how and under what conditions He 


THE THRILL OF EASTER 83 


would be with them. It would be in a different way 
from the nature of His presence before Calvary’s 
event. But He would be with them, and with their 
successors in faith, till the end of the world, as 
alive as ever He had been, as near as ever He had 
been. There is no reason to believe that Jesus 
withheld this comforting assurance till His very last 
words. Especially as it is impossible to conceive 
that Mary Magdalene or any other of Jesus’ 
friends did not formulate the question with trem- 
bling lips so soon as the first gasp of recognition 
was past. Do you not hear Mary’s plea, ‘‘ And you 
will never, never leave us again, Lord Jesus? ” 

With confidence it may be assumed that many 
more questions were asked and answers given and 
explanations vouchsafed, than those recorded in 
the brief summary of Jesus’ appearance to Mary 
Magdalene. What incoherent words must have 
fallen from Mary’s lips: “ You! It is You: Lord 
Jesus?—You are alive? You are really alive!— 
But You died on the Cross!—How can it be?—But 
You are here!—Please speak! ” And after the 
rapture of assurance, we cannot fail to hear the 
plaintive cry: “ Are you going to leave us alone 
again?’ Surely from the first Easter appearance, 
Jesus answered the question of trembling hearts by 
the assurance: ‘‘Lo I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world.” 

To you, is all this Easter story without meaning? 
Is Easter still only a date on the calendar? We 


84 THE THRILL OF EASTER 


read that Mary came to the tomb on that resurrec- 
tion day, “‘ when it was yet dark.”’ The words de- 
scribe a time of day, but might also be used to 
describe a soul condition. In common with all 
Jesus’ disciples, Mary had no expectation of the 
supernatural: ‘it was yet dark.” ‘That first Easter 
day dawned with the depressing expectation of the 
matter-of-fact: Jesus was dead: memory alone was 
the treasure of His friends. 

Are you still wandering among the tombs of the 
dead? Is there no thrill—no Easter? You have 
not heard anyone speaking your name? The only 
one you See is a gardener? 

There was then no Easter at the first, and so 
there is none now. Jesus’ first disciples were de- 
ceived, and they built their own lives in a lie. 
Jesus is dead, as are Plato and Socrates. They 
all have left us with only the deeper grief and 
hopelessness. 

But will you seek? Do you not see at least a 
gardener? 

The Gardener was waiting for Mary Magdalene. 
Quietly and unobtrusively He had been standing 
by her side. She asked only for the commonplace: 
“ tell me where thou hast laid him.” A single word 
fell from the Gardener’s lips in answer: ‘‘ Mary! ” 


IX 
THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 
I. BREAD 


“ Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” 
—Martruew 4:4. 






MA? HAN lives by bread. 

wwAb It is a becoming attitude for men 
to say “grace” before they eat and 
UREA AED | thereby acknowledge that the sources 
of life’s provisions, on which they depend, lie in 
hands other than their own. 

The word “ bread,” in its generic sense, includes 
all foodstuffs needful for sustaining physical life. 
“‘ Give us this day our daily bread,” is a petition 
for all the necessaries of bodily subsistence. 

Man can devise and create the equipments for 
highly organized social life: he can build factories, 
erect cities and construct transportation facilities. 
Yet the continuing usefulness of these things rests 
on food supply. The world’s gigantic and compli- 
cated industrial developments are dependent on the 
sufficiency of crops. Hunger cannot be assuaged 
with houses and factories. There is no substitute 


85 


86 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


for the sun and the rain. Man needs bread to live. 
In his dependency on bread man is at one with the 
brute creation, the fowls of the air, the beasts of 
the field and the fish of the sea. 

“ Bread” was the first fundamental problem 
Jesus faced and thought through, and fought 
through, in His terrific wilderness conflict at the 
beginning of His ministry. The bread and hunger 
question included the whole human struggle for 
subsistence with its related experiences of priva- 
tion, pain and sorrow. 

Respect for our Master might well cause us to 
shrink from using the phrase ‘“‘ The Temptations of 
Jesus.” It might seem derogatory to His character 
to suggest that He was really tempted. Yet the 
story of His temptations is known to us only be- 
cause Jesus Himself related it to His disciples. 
There were no witnesses in the wilderness. 
Matthew and Mark and Luke tell us how Jesus 
was ‘‘ tempted of the devil ” because this truth con- 
tains an essential element of God’s revelation of 
Himself. 

Jesus emerged from the great trial with clearly 
defined convictions concerning the Will of God. 
However uncertain He may have been before and 
during the days of conflict, after He entered His 
ministry there was never any wavering in His 
course of thought and action. 

Jesus’ own estimate of the purpose of His com- 
ing, as revealed by His wilderness decision, may 


BREAD 87 


cause us to see in some modern presentations of the 
nature of Jesus’ ministry a strange variance from 
His own conclusions. 

What would have been the consequence had 
Jesus yielded to the pressure of the forty days of 
fasting? Suppose He had turned stone into bread? 
Perhaps we can at least dimly sense the wisdom 
of God. | 

The temptations of Jesus wonderfully declare the 
consecration of our Lord to His Messianic task. 
And men, in the midst of their struggle for sub- 
sistence, need the viewpoint adopted by Jesus, that 
men do not live by bread alone as the beasts of the 
field, but as sons and daughters of God supremely 
need every revelation that comes from God. 

“Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the 
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when 
he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was 
afterward an hungered. 

“‘ And when the tempter came to him, he said, If 
thou be the Son of God, command that these stones 
be made bread. 

“But He answered and said, It is written, Man 
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word 
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” 

Jesus was sorely tempted by reason of long en- 
dured hunger to use His Divine power of which He 
had just become conscious, to change the estab- 
lished laws of God by making bread from stones; 
yet He finally determined that He would not thus 


88 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


eliminate for Himself the necessity of hunger if He 
did not also abolish hunger for mankind. 

The nature of this bread temptation it is not 
difficult to understand. 

At His baptism, Jesus had gained consciousness 
of His unique Sonship, and there now opened be- 
fore Him the road of His Messianic career. 

Led of the spirit into the wilderness, Jesus had 
fasted forty days and forty nights. He was hun- 
gry. Realizing that He was the Son of God, a na- 
tural course of action suggested itself. He could, 
with a word, turn stone into bread. The strength of 
that temptation is self-evident. There was the poig- 
nancy of His own hunger pains. Bread meant His 
own easement. Besides, man lives by bread, and if 
He would continue to live He must have bread. 

The reasons stated by Jesus on which He finally 
grounded His decision indicate that the bread prob- 
lem had assumed a larger aspect than that which 
merely embraced His own personal physical ease- 
ment. Jesus was conscious of Himself as both Son 
of God and Son of Man. As Son of God He might 
well use His power to turn stone into bread. But 
as Son of Man He would not ask for exemptions 
from privations to which man is subject. He must 
share the common burden of mankind, even to the 
tasting of man’s death. But might He not inaugu- 
rate His Messianic career by the removal of the 
curse of hunger and its allied disabilities and 
anguishes? 


BREAD 89 


It would have meant a glorious beginning of His 
ministry. The creation of unlimited bread supply 
for the world would have guaranteed His popular 
acceptance by the people. An overwhelming cre- 
dential for His claims would have been His. There 
might also well be added to the elimination of hun- 
ger, the removal, by His word, of all pain and sick- 
ness. Jesus was conscious of His ability thus to 
remove the pains and sorrows of men. What a tre- 
mendous appeal! What a temptation! It would 
cost only His powerful word as the Son of God! 
Why not do it? 

The basis of Jesus’ decision was positively and 
significantly stated by Him: ‘‘ Man shall not live 
by bread alone.” 

Jesus did not find it necessary to rest the answer 
to the momentous issue which confronted Him on 
any confusing or involved process of reasoning. 
There were no sophistries or perilous premises. 
Jesus knew an objective source of authority con- 
cerning the Will of God. God’s Word was to Him 
not something vaguely evolved from one’s inner 
consciousness, but a written document. To that 
He turned and to its commands surrendered Him- 
self unconditionally. He sought the appropriate 
page of God’s book. 

The concern of Jesus was to answer correctly the 
question: “‘ What is the All-wise Will of God in this 
matter of turning stone into bread?” Under other 
circumstances, later in His ministry, Jesus declared 


90 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


this same mental attitude of His in the words: “I 
came down from heaven not to do mine own will 
but the will of him that sent me” (John 6: 38). 

Jesus was in doubt about the Will of God. There 
could have been no temptation had there been no 
doubt. Jesus may have carried with Him in the 
folds of His cloak the roll of the law and of the 
prophets. Or He may have had a perfect memory 
of the text of the book of Deuteronomy. It is 
surely significant that in answer to each of the 
three wilderness temptations Jesus quoted excerpts 
from Moses’ farewell address, as ground sufficient 
for His own momentous decisions. 

When Moses’ words were clearly fixed in His 
mind, Jesus was resigned to die of hunger if neces- 
sary. It was clear to Him that He would not work 
exemption for Himself from a law under which 
man must live. Was it a wise and just law that 
there should be the possibility of death by hunger? 
So far as He was concerned, if it was the law of 
God for man it was a wise and just one and He 
would not disturb it. ‘“ It is written, Man—” was 
sufficient for our Lord. 

What the Word of God signified was that the 
material welfare of man was not the supreme con- 
sideration for man: ‘‘ Man liveth not by bread 
alone.”’ Whether man have sufficient bread to sus- 
tain physical life is a matter to be left to God’s 
providence. Let man say of His Lord: ‘‘ Though 
he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” 


BREAD 91 


Jesus’ decision was not in the nature of a denial 
that man lives by bread, but was an assertion that 
man’s horizon was not to be limited as is that of 
beasts who live by bread alone. The bread ques- 
tion is, and must remain subsidiary. ‘‘ Seek ye 
first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness,” 
Jesus said later, “‘ and all these things will be added 
unto you.” 

Theories of economic betterment which may 
loosely be termed “ socialistic ” have much in com- 
mon with the ideals of human welfare which are 
the goal of the teachings of the Kingdom of God. 
Yet such social ameliorations are not the exclusive 
objectives of Christianity. Man does not live by 
bread alone. Materialism has no horizon beyond 
bread. Jesus refused that horizon as being un- 
worthy of man’s ultimate destiny. He insisted that 
human vision embrace the larger perspective which 
must include every word that proceedeth out of the 
mouth of God as being of even greater importance 
than the elimination of suffering. 

In Jesus’ subsequent public ministry there was 
no deviation or any wavering from the clear-cut 
conclusion which He reached in the wilderness. 
The touch of certainty was a marked characteristic 
of His activities. He knew Himself, and He knew 
what was God’s Will. The wavering and the doubt 
had been left in the wilderness. Even when the 
assault against Him grew tumultous, His poise 
was perfect. 


92 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


Jesus did not make Himself Israel’s magic Bread 
King. Neither would He undertake to become the 
world’s universal healer. He emphatically discour- 
aged His contemporaries in any such expectations 
regarding Himself. 

Jesus did not heal all the sick He could have 
healed. He healed sufficient of such that His 
power was unquestioned by those whose minds 
were open to conviction. But the subsidiary 
nature of His healing power was clearly set 
forth by Him: ‘“ But that ye may know that 
the Son of Man hath power on earth to for- 
give sins, (then saith he to the sick of the 
palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine 
house.” 

Jesus did make bread. He fed thousands of hun- 
gry people. But when those who had been fed de- 
sired to make Him King, their bread-supplying 
King, He withdrew from them (John 6). They 
had misinterpreted His mission: He would not 
have them place a wrong emphasis on one phase, a 
minor one, of His ministry. 

Jesus knew Himself and His Messianic work to 
be man’s supreme necessity. Material bread was 
of lesser importance than spiritual bread to men 
whose souls were to live forever. So Jesus declared 
Himself, as Saviour, the “ true ” or vital bread by 
which man must live. 

‘¢ Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto 
you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; 


BREAD 93 


but my Father giveth you the true bread from 
heaven.” 

‘‘ For the bread of God is he which cometh down 
from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.” “I 
am that bread of life.” 

“Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, 
and are dead. This is the bread which cometh 
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, 
and not die.” 

‘“‘T am the living bread which came down from 
heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live 
forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, 
which I will give for the life of the world.” 

“‘ He that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” 

Your Lord is far from insensible to your struggle 
for subsistence and its allied suffering and pains. 
A more brotherly relationship among men will 
ameliorate much of the injustice and hardship of 
our common life. Your Lord’s teaching creates 
such brotherliness among men in the hearts of 
those who accept Him. 

Yet your Lord would not change the wise laws 
of God for man. Particularly would he have you 
realize the supreme truth that man does not live by 
bread alone. You are not to be as the lower cre- 
ation. You are destined, in a little while, to enter 
into the everlasting inheritance of sons and daugh- 
ters of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! 
Your supreme need is the spiritual bread which is 
the word proceeding out of the mouth of God. 


94 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


You need God most of all: and God, in Christ, is 
supplying that need of Himself. It is soul bread. 
Without it, your soul dies. 

Or would you have had it otherwise? Would 
you have made bread supreme? Or if not supreme, 
yet would you have had it made of equal impor- 
tance to God’s revelation of Himself? In your 
judgment was Jesus unwise? Or, for other reasons, 
is the course He adopted still unsatisfactory to 
you? Since He rested His conclusion on the Will 
of God, would you also indict the wisdom, or 
benevolence, of that Will? Suppose Jesus had 
yielded to the pressure of the temptation which 
beset Him! 

Blatant and shallow atheism may proclaim: “ If 
I were God I would turn every stone to bread, and 
make a healing herb of every blade of grass! ” 

Yes? And then what would you have? Con- 
tentment? Are those who have material posses- 
sions in abundance conspicuously contented? Is 
not the contrary frequently true? You know the 
basis of happiness is not exclusively gold. 

One of the most disintegrating influences that 
comes into domestic life is the removal of economic 
necessities. The family which is held together by 
the struggle for subsistence too often falls apart 
when riches and plenty come. 

The atheist who would tamper with God’s world 
should first persuade you that he would make sons 
of God and not children of perdition. The Will of 


BREAD 95 


God contemplates a social readjustment which will 
solve many of the ills of this life. But the wisdom 
of God has withheld unchecked ease, security and 
luxury that, unrestrained, would send most of man- 
kind to hell in two generations. Man, the mankind 
God would train, who is more than beast, is not 
kept in life by bread alone. 

The end of materialism is not a Millennium, but 
a Bedlam. 

The Saviour of the world faced the bread temp- 
tation in the wilderness, and thought it through, 
and fought it through, then was ever thereafter 
sure of the course His ministry should follow, 
and at its end interpreted the real bread question 
in this wise: 

“* And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake 
it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body 
which is given for you.” 


x 
THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 
II. MIRACLES 


“Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” 
—MatrHew 4:7. 


»~POD made man in His own image. 
i (ae = “The chief end of man is to glorify 
AG aa God.” 

Ss) The Will of God may approve itself 
to our understanding; the wisdom and benevolence 
of His plans for our salvation may coincide with 
our own judgments of efficiency and goodness. 

But if not? 

Man may create a god in man’s own image. 

In place of the idol-gods of old, made after man’s 
imagining, of wood or stone or gold, man may make 
his god of his own conceptions of wisdom and be- 
nevolence. And the chief function of such a god is 
the glorifying of man. Pride in one’s own mental 
workmanship makes it easy to worship so com- 
plaisant and flattering a god. 

God is the center of all things and man is sub- 
servient to God’s purposes. Or man is the center 
of all things, and all things must revolve about his 
interests. Such are the alternatives. 


96 
/ 





MIRACLES 97 


Jesus’ supreme concern during the forty days’ 
temptation in the wilderness was to know the plan 
and Will of God. The second fundamental prob- 
lem which Jesus faced, and thought through, and 
fought through, was that of the use of His miracle 
power. When the Will of God was made clear to 
Him, our Lord entered His public ministry with 
a definite course in mind from which He never 
wavered. 

Jesus’ resistance to the suggestion of using His 
miracle power to create faith in Himself and His 
mission is not without utmost significance to us. It 
would seem to indicate that God’s plan for our sal- 
vation does not include such a manifestation of His 
power as would preclude our use of faith. God 
possibly is not so much concerned about getting 
men to accept Christ, regardless of how they come 
to such belief, as men might suppose their impor- 
tance to God would dictate. Or perhaps the case 
should be stated this way: belief in Christ, pro- 
duced by compelling outward proof, is not such 
faith as that is without which “ it is impossible to 
please God.” ‘The importance to our own destinies 
of having this matter clear in our minds is self- 
evident. We may be awaiting something, or condi- 
tioning our belief upon something of which we shall 
learn, from Jesus’ wilderness decision, that by the 
Will of God we shall die in our sins before it will 
be granted us. 

“Then the devil taketh him up into the holy 

4 


98 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple.” 
The topographical situation of Jerusalem, on 
Mount Zion, is well known. The “ pinnacle,” or 
wing of the temple, referred to, was probably the 
one overlooking the deep valley of the Kedron. 
Josephus, describing the view from the Royal 
Porch, stated that ‘if anyone looked down from 
the top of the battlement he would become 
giddy.” 

“‘ And (the devil) saith unto him, If thou be the 
Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He 
shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in 
their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time 
thou dash thy foot against a stone.” 

We must continuously keep in mind that Jesus, 
recently conscious of His unique Sonship, was con- 
templating here in the wilderness the course His 
Messianic career should take. The temptation to 
inaugurate His ministry with a notable miracle was 
alluring. Thereby He might glorify God and gain 
for Himself immediately a nation-wide respectful 
hearing. Would not the miracle compel belief 
in Him? 

Jesus rested His refusal to the tempting sugges- 
tion on a statement of old regarding the Will of 
God for man. It became clear to our Lord what 
that Will of God for man was, and He, as Son of 
Man, would be obedient as man must be. “ Jesus 
said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not 
tempt the Lord thy God.” 


MIRACLES 99 


Jesus evidently decided, while fighting through 
this second temptation, that man must attain to a 
belief in God without being induced to it by com- 
pelling outward evidence. God cares very much 
that man come to a saving knowledge of Him, 
through Jesus Christ. But there are evidently 
clearly defined limits to any efforts of God in bring- 
ing man to such faith. And God, not man, remains 
the arbiter of that way of salvation. 

The strength of any temptation lies in its appeal 
to desire. The suggestion to our Lord that He cast 
Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple and 
land unharmed in the deep valley below, appealed 
to Him strongly. For so Jesus, by this conspicuous 
miracle, might immediately prove Himself accred- 
ited of God. 

The strength of any temptation also lies in the 
realization that its object is attainable. There is no 
lure in the impossible, or the absurd. That which 
the hand may seize, causes desire. Jesus was con- 
scious that it now clearly lay in His power, as Son 
of God, to perform this miracle. The quotation 
from the Psalms was applicable to Him: God would 
command the angels to keep Him unharmed. Be- 
yond doubt He would land safely in the Valley of 
Hinnom. 

What more glorious and effective way could be 
devised for bringing men to faith in Christ? Let 
our Lord summons all Israel to Jerusalem and have 
the people assembled on the sides of Olivet! Then 


100 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


might the Son of God, gliding into space from His 
position poised on the pinnacle of the temple, dra- 
matically descend into the yawning valley below 
and, with garments fluttering, come to the ground 
unhurt. Would not multitudes, even hundreds of 
thousands of people, fall on their faces before the 
One who had indeed come down from heaven! 
His message would be believed! 

Such was the strength, the poignancy of the temp- 
tation which Jesus faced. He was sorely tempted 
to yield. Why not assent to the suggestion? 

The ground of Jesus’ decision is set forth with- 
out equivocation. The words contained in Moses’ 
farewell address to Israel stated the Will of God 
for man. Man may not presume to put God on 
trial to approve himself to man. That Word of 
God for man must be sufficient for the Son of Man. 
“ Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” God is 
not to be the subject of experiment by man. Man 
may not demand of God such proof as man may 
deem necessary for his faith. God alone is the 
arbiter of the plan of salvation. 

Such was the declared Will of God for man. And 
when Jesus became clear in His own mind that this 
was the principle on which His Father was working 
out the destiny of mankind, He resigned Himself to 
it with utmost acquiescence, even though it might 
appear to rob Him of effectiveness for His career. 
He did not come to abrogate or amend a defective 
policy of God’s. This fact He emphasized in a 


MIRACLES 101 


subsequent statement of His function: ‘‘ Think not 
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: 
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily 
I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot 
or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till 
all be fulfilled ” (Matthew 5: 17). 

Jesus would not change God’s method of bring- 
ing men to saving faith. If man, according to God’s 
wisdom, must come to such saving knowledge with- 
out miracle manifestations, Jesus would not tam- 
per with such a decree. Jesus was content to rest 
His will on the Will of God, as He later stated it: 
“not my will, but thine, be done.” 

God cares very much that man come to know 
Him and Jesus Christ whom He sent into the 
world. Bethlehem and Calvary prove that. But 
such knowledge of God must be created without 
compelling objective evidence. Man may not de- 
mand that experiments shall be made of God’s 
being and power. ‘‘ Thou shalt not tent the 
Lord thy God.” Man must follow God’s plan, not 
his own. 

Jesus’ decision was not that for Him, as Son of 
God, there would be no need, during His ministry, 
for the exercise of miracle power. But Jesus con- 
cluded that God desired Him to refuse the exercise 
of His miracle power for bringing the world to His 
feet. God is not so much concerned about getting 
men to believe, regardless of how they come to such 
belief, as men may pride themselves in thinking 


102 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


when they exaggerate their importance to God and 
would dictate God’s method of procedure in His 
plan of salvation. 

Jesus’ subsequent use of His miracle power may 
seem erratic. At times He used it unstintingly. At 
times He exercised miracle power, but commanded 
that the fact be kept silent. Again, under circum- 
stances apparently most favorable for its display, 
He refused its slightest use. Unless we understand 
the principle which governed Jesus’ conduct after 
He faced, and thought through, and fought through 
the second temptation in the wilderness, we cannot 
comprehend the clear consistency of our Lord’s 
later conduct concerning miracles. Yet it should 
not be impossible for us to see how throughout His 
ministry there was never any wavering or uncer- 
tainty or deviation from the conclusion He reached 
in the wilderness. During those forty days, Jesus 
may have been in doubt about the wisdom of not 
using miracle power for creating saving faith. Had 
there been no doubt there would have been no 
temptation. But no such doubt was carried over 
into His active ministry. 

Jesus might have won all Israel, with mouths 
agape, to a certain sort of belief in Him, in a day. 
That He refused to do, and ever thereafter we see 
Him as one who knew Himself and knew what was 
God’s Will. His poise was perfect even when the 
religious leaders hounded Him with the demand, 
“What sign showest thou unto us?” ‘“ What 


MIRACLES 103 


miracles doest thou?” “Then certain of the 
scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, 
Master, we would see a sign from thee. But 
he answered and said unto them, An evil and 
adulterous generation seeketh after a sign: There 
shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the 
prophet Jonas ” (Matthew 12: 38). 

Jesus refused the signs, or miracles and proofs, 
demanded: admitting that He knew the conse- 
quences of His refusal: ‘“‘ Except ye see signs and 
wonders, ye will not believe ” (John 4: 48). Had 
He desired to have men come to a certain sort of 
belief, regardless of how they arrived at it, the 
easiest course for Him to follow would have been 
to give them such miracle signs. But there was no 
hesitation: the problem had been settled in the 
wilderness. 

Jesus used His miracle power to confirm faith 
already existing, and to declare the benevolence of 
God. Yet no fact in the life of Christ is more sig- 
nificant in respect to the creation of faith, than that 
Jesus confined the presentation of the proof of the 
resurrection miracle, the greatest miracle of all, to 
His friends. He did not appear to Caiaphas, Pilate, 
Annas or the members of the Sanhedrin. He mani- 
fested Himself to His disciples. He proved Him- 
self alive to above five hundred persons at one time, 
but they were “ brethren ” (I Cor. 15: 6). 

Probably the clearest exposition of this decision 
to discount the value of miracles for creating sav- 


104 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


ing faith was given by Jesus in His story of Dives 
and Lazarus. Dives, in hell, requested Abraham to 
send one from the dead to his five brethren, yet 
living, so they might not come to the same place of 
torment. Dives argued, ‘“‘ If one went unto them 
from the dead, they will repent ” (Luke 16: 30). 
Jesus, through the answer of Abraham, declared 
His own settled conviction: “If they hear not 
Moses and the prophets neither will they be per- 
suaded, though one rose from the dead.” Jesus’ 
mind was clear concerning the nature of the belief 
which might be created by the compulsion of mir- 
acles. Miracles would create wonder and fear, but 
not repentance and sorrow for sin: they would not 
result in trust in the redemptive love of Christ, and 
in reciprocal affection. There would be no devel- 
opment of the soul. Jesus was satisfied that God’s 
plan and Will was best. 

Will you, nevertheless, demand some certain 
proofs before you will believe? Let us state the 
childish demand of a prayer: “‘O God, I do not 
know whether to believe or not! If You are in 
existence make me believe on You! Show me a 
sign. Make this chair walk out of this room! Rap 
on this table! Then I will believe! ” 

If that is the only way you will believe, God 
would rather not have you believe at all. Contrast 
the nature of belief which would result from the 
granting of a miracle, and that which lays hold on 
God “ though tossed about with many a conflict, 


MIRACLES 105 


many a doubt, Fightings and fears within, with- 
out.” ‘‘ Blessed are they that have not seen and 
yet have believed.” 

Are you satisfied that Jesus acted wisely in not 
yielding to the impulse to cast Himself down from 
the pinnacle of the temple to create belief? Or 
would you have had it otherwise? Jesus rested His 
decision on the Will of God for man: “ thou shalt 
not tempt the Lord thy God.” But is that Will 
sufficient for you? 

God might write His decrees on the blackboard 
of the skies, in letters of fire dripping from His 
finger tips. As an airplane writing with smoke let- 
ters, so might God dictate His messages. In His 
hands He might seize this sphere and shake it with 
earthquakes, and voice warning and doom in peals 
of thunder, and no knee would remain unbowed. 
Who questions that He who made the heavens and 
the earth could, with the movement of His little 
finger, bring terror and obedience to every human 
heart? But the belief created thereby would mean 
no more for regeneration than that of “ the devils 
who also believe and tremble.” 

Jesus had no doubt of the availability of super- 
natural forces at His command: ‘“ Thinkest thou 
that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall 
presently give me more than twelve legions of 
angels? ” The certainty was like that in the wil- 
derness: God would protect Him if He chose to 
cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the 


106 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


temple. But Jesus was concerned to know only 
what was the Will of God for the way of man’s 
salvation. 

The Will of God may approve itself to our un- 
derstanding. ‘There is satisfaction to our mortal 
minds in apprehending the wisdom of God for our 
salvation. But if all God’s ways are not clear to 
us, shall we create a god in our own image, of our 
own conception of wisdom and benevolence, as a 
substitute god? 

Or shall we realize that the Lord is God, and 
there is none else beside Him? ‘That our idol god 
does not exist except in our own minds? Jesus 
rested His will in the Will of God. His supreme 
concern during the forty days in the wilderness 
was to know the plan of God. The wisdom of 
God denied to man the prerogative to experiment 
with God. 

Jesus’ acquiescence was, as ours should be, to the 
plea of God for confidence in Him, as stated by 
God, of old, in His words: 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither 
are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 

‘“‘ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 
so are my ways higher than your ways, and my 
thoughts than your thoughts.” 


XI 
THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 
III, THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 
“The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them.’—MattuEw 4:8. 
{ta [ the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry 


‘2% “the shadow of a cross arose upon a 
1S VF : 
®) lonely hill.” 





1% How much Jesus knew of the course 
that lay before Him, as He entered His public 
ministry, is not revealed. Jesus knew the Old 
Testament. The Psalms and Isaiah, read by the 
guidance of the Holy Spirit, make clear that the 
path of the Servant of the Lord would be a Way 
to a Cross. 

When did Jesus become conscious of being Mes- 
siah? We only know that at Jesus’ baptism the 
Holy Ghost descended upon Him, and a voice 
spoke from heaven. It is not necessary to suppose 
that anyone except Jesus heard that voice. The 
message of God, on that occasion, was particularly 
for Jesus: “ Thou art my beloved son in whom I 
am well pleased ” (Mark 1: 11). 


107 


108 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


In the terrific wilderness conflict at the begin- 
ning of Jesus’ public ministry the third fundamen- 
tal problem He faced and thought through and 
fought through was evidently that of the success of 
His mission. The vision of the kingdoms and the 
glory of them reveals the thoughts of Jesus’ own 
heart. Yet the intimations of the prophets and the 
intuitions from the Holy Spirit would suggest “ the 
shadow of a cross.”’ 

The clearly revealed Will of God, as stated in the 
Old Testament, had already enabled Jesus to define 
the nature of His ministry so far as “ bread ” and 
“miracles”? were concerned. But in this third 
temptation the iron entered His soul. When He 
had conquered, at least for the time being, “ the 
angels came and ministered unto him.” 

“The devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them.” 

If familiarity with these words has not totally 
dulled the mind, one is swept off his feet by the stu- 
pendous and spectacular scene suggested. There is 
unfolded the panorama of all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them. 

We may not suppose that this temptation was 
merely theatric, with Jesus playing an assumed 
part. It was real, not artificial. Jesus “ was in all 
points tempted like as we are.”’ Vividly, Jesus saw 
the glories of the world, and He yearned for them. 
If He did not behold the world’s kingdoms with 


THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 109 


His physical eyes, He surely did with mental eyes, 
as we may see them. 

Jesus was in doubt as to what He should do. 
Where there is no doubt there is no temptation. 
The Will of God was sought by our Lord, and at 
the end of His mental struggle He found it in the 
words of the Old Testament: “ It is written thou 
shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt 
thou serve.” 

God must be obeyed. The Will of God is law. 
That law is right because it is God’s Will. ‘ Him 
only shalt thou serve” is God’s law for man. If 
that Will of God denied to Jesus the glories of the 
world, then He would put them behind Him and 
walk in whatever path God directed, even though it 
meant that He “‘ tread the wine-press alone.” 

The significance of Jesus’ decision with all which 
it involved for the Son of God is too deep for any 
mortal ever to understand, but sufficient of its daz- 
zling meaning should penetrate our minds to cause 
us to fall on our knees in adoration and proclaim: 
‘In the cross of Christ I glory.” 

Jesus might have made the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of them His own immediately. 
Yet He dedicated Himself unreservedly and volun- 
tarily, though not without bitter struggle, to the 
way of the Messiah. This involved renunciation of 
His conscious Divine power and a willingness to 
live only by faith in God even as mortal man must 
do. Thus, serving God only, Jesus became obedi- 


110 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


ent to the Divine Will and wisdom concerning the 
path to be taken by God’s Saviour of the world. 

The appeal of Satan’s suggestion was over- 
whelming. It was not the offer of something to 
which our Lord was indifferent, but of that for 
which Jesus had a consuming passion. 

The third temptation reached into the deepest 
recesses of Jesus’ heart. It seemed to offer an ob- 
jective altogether right for Him in the sight of God. 
Jesus could have yielded to the allurement of this 
temptation without sin: though it would have 
ruined His Messianic career. Anyone else but 
Jesus would have yielded to it. Jesus Himself was 
sorely tempted as He stood at this brink of deci- 
sion. And while He wavered, seeking to know 
God’s Will, the fate of the world hung in the 
balance. 

All the love of Christ for men pressed on Him to 
make the kingdoms of the world His own. Jesus 
longed to have men love and adore Him. In no 
sense was He indifferent to their response. Jesus 
loved mankind with a consuming passion. Even 
the most unlovely of the children of men were most 
precious to Him. Jesus longed to be king in the 
hearts of men. His was not a superficial or pro- 
fessional affectation of love, but a genuine and mar- 
velous love which could pray even for those who 
nailed Him to the cross. 

The impulse of affection toward men which dom- 
inated the Saviour, was akin to that in the heart of 


THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 111 


God which caused the creation of the world and 
initiated the plan of salvation. The desire of God 
for the children of men is beyond the scope of our 
minds. Why did God create man? Why did God 
so love the world? We may only grope for some 
dim understanding of a social instinct in God 
seeking expression. The heart of God, in the ages 
before man was created, held a thought which 
found its development in the making of the world 
and its creatures. The heart of the Lord Jesus was 
the heart of God. As God loved the world, so 
Jesus loved the world. 

The tragedy of the Saviour, as viewed by Isaiah 
of old, was that of being prematurely cut off from 
the land of the living. The Saviour was childless. 
Yet He would see of the “ travail of his soul” and 
be satisfied. It was the mysterious depth of Jesus’ 
love for men, which caused the appeal of Satan’s 
suggestion to shake the foundations of His heart. 

The dark alternative to a glorious reign over the 
kingdoms of the world, was also brought to the 
foreground by the meditation. If the Messiah, by 
the Will of God, is not immediately to rule the na- 
tions, what then? ‘The description of Isaiah’s suf- 
fering Servant of the Lord must have emerged into 
His consciousness: “he is despised and rejected 
of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him— 
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and 
afflicted—he was numbered with the transgressors.” 


112 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


It is not too much to say that our Saviour shrank 
from that cup and that cross. He who was con- 
scious of the glory He had with the Father before 
the world was, could contemplate only in agony 
of soul the humiliation and the shame of the Via 
Dolorosa. 

The reason for the decision He made, Jesus 
found by reading, or recalling to mind, a declara- 
tion of God’s written in the book of Deuteronomy. 
The words He quoted were: ‘‘ Thou shalt worship 
the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” 
To serve God means to obey God. For man there 
is but one course of conduct, regardless of what the 
consequences may appear to involve, and that is 
obedience to the revealed Will of God. 

It may be difficult for us to grasp the subtilty of 
Satan’s suggestion or to sense all it embraced. 
There is an intimation of something more than is 
contained in the bare words themselves, with their 
apparently crude offer: “‘ All these things will I 
give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.” 
The only safe light in which to view these words, 
is that which falls on them from the nature of 
Jesus’ reply. To “ fall down and worship ” Satan 
stands opposed to ‘‘(God) only shalt thou serve.” 
The temptation was one to exercise disobedience to 
God, or a deviation from God’s Will and plan. 
The choice our Lord needed to make involved the 
renunciation of the kingdoms of the world, and the 
bearing of the Cross instead, if thus “it pleased 


THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 113 


the Lord to bruise him,” and if Jesus knew of God 
that ‘‘ he hath put him to grief.” 

This third temptation was not finally settled in 
the wilderness. In this respect the temptation 
differs from the previous ones. Of the first two 
temptations we could say that after Jesus had 
faced them and thought through them and fought 
through them in the wilderness there was never 
any wavering or uncertainty regarding the policies 
embraced by them, during His public ministry. 

Of this final and bitterest trial, it may only be 
said that the devil ‘‘ departed from him for a 
season.” ‘Get thee hence Satan:” Jesus re- 
plied. When did Satan return with the same sug- 
gestions? When did Jesus address Satan again 
similarly? 

Jesus’ abrupt answer to one of His friends, on a 
later occasion, is recalled. His very abruptness 
intimates the sensitiveness of His reaction to His 
friend’s words. There was here lacking the poise 
of Jesus such as He always displayed in problems 
and situations affecting His policies concerning 
“‘ miracles ” or “‘ bread supply.” 

In the instance we recall, Jesus had indicated the 
way of the Messiah to His disciples, saying that “ he 
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things 
of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be 
killed.” 

Peter, answering, said unto Him: “ Be it far 
from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But 


114 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind 
me, Satan.” 

Not Peter, but that suggestion with its terrible 
appeal to Him was Satan. Against that same sug- 
gestion He struggled on the mountain top. The 
temptation was not ended during the forty days. 
The agony and shrinking from the Cross and the 
fear of the cup, returned in Gethsemane when “ his 
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling 
down to the ground.” It again tore His heart in 
the “ Eli, eli, lama sabachthani.” The temptation 
was ended only when He said on the Cross, “ It 
is finished.” 

Not without faltering did Jesus contemplate the 
alternative to the possession of the kingdoms of the 
world. The terrors of real temptations lie in the 
possibility of yielding to them. 

How real was the strugggle and temptation to 
Jesus? Was the issue of it a foregone cogclusion? 
Or could Jesus have submitted to Satan? The 
questions are vital and demand answers, for they 
affect the genuineness of these trials. The priest- 
hood of Jesus is predicated on the reality of His 
temptations: ‘‘ he was tempted in all points like as 
we are—therefore he is able to bear gently with the 
ignorant and the erring.” If the offer of Satan 
were only a make-believe trial and did not really 
tempt our Lord, or if it had been impossible for 
Him to yield to the temptation, where is the reality 
of a soul-struggle? 


THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 115 


It is impious to speak of Jesus, the Divine Son 
of God, as being tempted to sin. His impecca- 
bility rests on His nature, “the same in sub- 
stance with the father, equal in power and glory.” 
There is no standard of good and evil except the 
Will of God. 

It is an entirely different matter, however, to de- 
clare that the Messiahship of Jesus was voluntary 
and was not of any ethical necessity. Jesus in- 
sisted, unequivocally, on this liberty and freedom 
of His saving work. ‘I lay down my life for the 
sheep. Therefore doth my father love me, because 
I lay down my life that I might take it again. No 
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. 
I have power to lay it down, and I have power to 
take it again. This commandment have I received 
of my father” (John 10: 17, 18). 

As Jesus wandered in the wilderness, and stood 
on the mountain top, He was conscious of His 
Divinity and He also knew the bitter facts of the 
way of the Cross. He was conscious of the power 
to lay down His life, or to refrain from the sacri- 
fice. His soul shrank from the Cross. Who can 
even faintly grasp the cost to Him? And He chose 
the Cross as the Will and Wisdom of God. 

Do you feel entitled to despise that Cross of 
Christ? To be ashamed of it? 

“The preaching of the cross is to them that per- 
ish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is 
the power of God.—We preach Christ crucified, 


116 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the 
Greeks foolishness: But unto them which are 
called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of 
God, and the wisdom of God. Because the foolish- 
ness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness 
of God is stronger than men.” 


“In the cross of Christ I glory, 
Towering o’er the wrecks of time 
All the light of sacred story 
Gathers round its head sublime.” 


Before Jesus’ eyes, on this mountain top, was 
conjured the panorama of the kingdoms of the 
world and their glory! 

Following Jordan’s pathway to the north, beyond 
the blue waters of Genneseret and Bethsaida’s 
dwellings, on Syrian soil stood ancient Damascus. 
The Arabs called it an earthly paradise. Gardens 
and orchards surrounded the city. It was the goal 
of the caravans which came laden with silks and 
spices from Bagdad, beyond the desert. Farther 
north lay Antioch, the imperial city, proud in her 
Roman splendor. And beyond were Galatia and 
the northern provinces. 

Toward the sunrise, beyond the desert, was 
Assyria. Ancient Mesopotamia nestled between 
the Tigris and the Euphrates. Did the Son of God 
behold all the kingdoms of the world and the glory 
of them? Then He viewed man’s cradle-land. 
From ancient Chaldee, Ur sent forth the venerable 


THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 117 


patriarch, Abraham, the father of the Jews. Nine- 
veh rose to His longing eyes, that great city. Once 
again God, in the person of His Son, brooded over 
Nineveh as when His recalcitrant prophet, Jonah, 
was sent to her. Hate Nineveh? No! The 
thought of God was: ‘‘ And shall not I spare Nine- 
veh, that great city, wherein are more than six score 
thousand persons that cannot discern between their 
right hand and their left hand: and also much cat- 
tle?” Babylon lay there, with her voluptuous 
hanging-gardens, the wonders of the ancient world, 
city of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar. And be- 
yond were India, and Persia, and China—worlds of 
human beings for whom He came to be a Ransom 
and a Light. 

Entranced, and urged by Satan, He turned to see 
the kingdoms of the south. Behold the rich lands 
of the Nile, dotted with palm trees. Alexandria, 
of Egypt, great emporium of commerce, seat of 
learning and philosophy, city of ancient books, 
greeted Him. Beyond Sinai’s dread mount rose 
the magnificent mausoleum of a Pharaoh, the 
pyramid which exacted the continuous labor for 
twenty years of 100,000 slaves. It was the land 
of Joseph, beyond the Red Sea, and the land of 
Moses, dimly illumined by the lighthouse of 
Pharos. Below were Memphis and Thebes, vast 
cities of their day; and then the lands of the sad 
children of Ethiopia. 

Finally, did Jesus look toward the west, the fu- 


118 THE TEMPTATIONS OF JESUS 


ture land, the coming empires? Ephesus, the splen- 
did, greeted His eyes. There, built at the com- 
mon charge of all the Asiatic States, stood the 
temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the 
world, two hundred and twenty years in building. 
Across the A®gean Sea lay Athens, unrivalled for 
achievements in art and literature, immortal in the 
records of Greek statesmanship and military prow- 
ess. About the Acropolis were gathered the memo- 
ries of A®schylus, Sophocles and Euripedes, and 
Mar’s Hill was waiting for the Roman Jew who was 
to tell of the Unknown God and the Resurrection. 
Sparta, the city of disciplined youth, and Corinth, 
whose columned temples were to remain the models 
of ornate architecture through the ages, passed be- 
fore the focus of His eyes. Farther, by the Tiber, 
on her seven hills, sat Rome, the mistress of the 
world. From Brittany to the Euphrates her word 
was law. All roads led to her portals, and her 
power, stupendous, had broken down all barriers 
and all limitations. There could be no vision of 
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them 
that did not embrace the Eternal City. And then, 
beyond Rome? Who knows? Through the Pillars 
of Hercules, at the entering in of the Mediterran- 
ean, where Gibraltar watches? And beyond the 
great deep? Who knows how far? To the magic 
future land, lying unsuspected in the arms of 
Ocean, awaiting the Genoese navigator? 

“ All the kingdoms of the world and the glory of 


THE GLORY OF THE WORLD 119 


them.” What was the message from them which 
thrilled His being? 


“From Greenland’s icy mountass, 
From India’s coral strand, 
Where Afric’s sunny fountain 
Rolls down the golden sand; 
From many an ancient river, 
From many a palmy plasn, 
They call him to deliver, 
Thewr land from error’s chain.” 


Oh, how He loved the kingdoms of the world! 
How He loved the world! 

Then the tides of vision receded. The glories of 
the kingdoms became blurred to His sight and lost 
in a vague horizon. The scene was contracted to 
the confines of Israel. Close at hand, and majes- 
tically erect, glorious Jerusalem blended into her- 
self the dissolving view of the world. Then His 
tears blotted out the Holy City. 

The Saviour had made His choice. It was the 
Will of God. It was God’s way for man’s salva- 
tion. Now there was darkness. What did the 
Holy Spirit intimate, and what did the prophets 
foretell? 

A thin shaft of light broke through the darkness 
and rested on a spot not far away, but just outside 
the city gates: 


“The shadow of a cross arose, upon a lonely hill.” 


XIT 
THE UNWELCOME GUEST 


“And when the king came im to see the guests, he 
saw there a man which had not on a wedding gar- 
ment.”-—MatTrHew 22:11. 


Zig OMMERCIAL goods may appreciate 
(02 or depreciate in value according to a 
é law of supply and demand which auto- 
eZ & matically regulates such fluctuations. 
nee of trade, the supply of which can be arti- 
ficially controlled, are susceptible to abrupt vari- 
ations in value. Rarity becomes the basis of 
valuation. 

Spiritual valuations may also be based on rar- 
ity, and there may be a depreciation of the value 
of spiritual resources which cannot be selfishly 
controlled. 

Jesus’ story of the man without a wedding 
garment, if only casually read, may be seriously 
misinterpreted, creating resentment rather than 
acquiescence. A king, we are told, prepared a 
wedding banquet for his son, but found the invited 
guests unwilling to attend. So the king punished 
these guests who snubbed his kindness and then 
extended the invitation promiscuously and _ ur- 


120 





THE UNWELCOME GUEST 121 


gently. Thus a motley assembly finally gathered. 
This democratic enlargement of hospitality is pleas- 
ing. But from this point the story takes a turn 
which may, at first, be bewildering: “ When the 
king came in to see the guests he saw there a man 
which had not on a wedding garment.” 

Joy over the king’s democratic hospitality may 
here yield to resentment. Pity may rise for the 
object of the king’s severity, which seems beyond 
all bounds of reason and justice: “‘ Then said the 
king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot and 
take him away and cast him into outer darkness: 
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 

Was not the king unjust, arbitrary, despotic? 
The condemnation tends to incite rebellion. If the 
character of the king may be dealt with fregy and 
frankly, indignation is easily created over this 
autocratic conduct following a deceptive cordiality. 
The story is not satisfactory to our conceptions of 
a just God, though we realize that we ought to 
approve and not resent the parable. 

If your thought concerning the story of the wed- 
ding garment and the unwelcome guest has been at 
all similar to that just set forth, you should aban- 
don every previous conclusion as you again hear 
the parable. You may then not only acquiesce in 
its conclusion, but be very sincerely thankful that 
our Lord uttered so needful and significant a story 
and you may rebuke some things in yourself and 
greatly praise God. Some of you may be like this 


\ 
122 THE UNWELCOME GUEST 


man without a wedding garment. To understand 
Jesus may lead to your conversion. 

Among the ignoble qualities sometimes uncov- 
ered in human nature there is a base selfishness 
which causes the valuation of many things, not ac- 
cording to their worth but according to their rarity. 
Such selfishness tends to depreciating, despising, 
and counting of no value the goodness of God in 
the offer of His salvation on account of its very 
abundance. 

This is not a story of a man getting into heaven 
under false pretences and then being thrown out. 
This man was not thrown out of heaven at all. He 
never got into heaven. He was eliminated just 
when heaven would have begun for him, had he 
been fit for heaven. The parable is staged in two 
worlds. The curtain between the present life and 
the life of the next world falls and rises at the point 
in the story where the king enters. The banquet 
begins only when the king is present. It was be- 
yond the scope of Jesus’ narrative to depict that 
actual banquet in heaven. He confined Himself to 
a judgment scene preceding the feast, when the 
guest without a wedding garment was cast out from 
the banquet hall where the assembly was gathered. 
He was a guest only in the sense that he was an in- 
vited person. But the invitation was cancelled 
before the banquet started. 

Jesus’ story of the cancelled invitation makes it 
very clear that the unwelcome guest was not singled 


THE UNWELCOME GUEST 123 


out arbitrarily by the king, but that he had delib- 
erately made himself obnoxiously conspicuous. 
There was rasping bravado in his lack of conform- 
ity to the decent requirements of the occasion. It 
is evident that the reasons for this lay in himself 
and not in circumstances. Poverty was not the 
cause. Oriental kings always provided garments 
for their guests. The attendance had been re- 
cruited from “ the highways,” and the question of 
poverty or wealth was not involved. To guard 
against a misinterpretation of His story, Jesus also 
inserted the words “‘ both bad and good” in His 
description of the guests. It was not because of 
the man’s immorality that the king withdrew the 
invitation. The king had cordially invited the 
publicans and sinners. 

An ignoble selfishness causes the value of a com- 
mon gift to depreciate. To a selfish man in a 
poverty-stricken community the gift of a sum of 
money is a valued possession, but a large part of 
its value to him lies in the fact that he alone has 
that sum of money. Let the gift of the same sum 
of money be extended to every other man in that 
same poverty-stricken community, and to the self- 
ish man the original great value of the gift is 
depreciated. 

There is the depreciated social invitation. A man 
may be proud to have been asked to attend a king’s 
banquet. His first thought is of the kindness of the 


king. He appraises highly the honor of being the 


124 THE UNWELCOME GUEST 


king’s guest. But in proportion to his selfishness 
he wishes the list of invited guests to be restricted. 
This he desires not because there would be any lack 
of provisions, for the king’s wealth is unlimited, but 
because he would preen himself before his fellows 
as being of conspicuous importance. As he meets 
his fellowmen and finds that they all are also in- 
vited to the banquet, the honor of his own invita- 
tion becomes depreciated to him. The kindness of 
the king now means nothing. Rarity was the basis 
of his selfish valuation. 

Recall Jesus’ story of the depreciated penny, as 
told by Matthew. Workmen were hired for labor. 
in a vineyard and the wage agreed upon for the 
day’s work was satisfactory. The penny was large. 
But at pay-time, in the evening, those same work- 
men ‘‘ murmured” over that penny. The penny 
had become depreciated. The employer asked one 
of these men, “ Friend, I do thee no wrong: didst 
not thou agree with me for a penny?” How had 
the penny become of less value? Simply because 
other men, who in this case had worked only a part 
of the day, by the liberality of the master were like- 
wise receiving the penny. To shame the spokes- 
man of the murmurers, the employer asked, “ Is 
thine eye evil because I am good? ”’ 

The goodness of God cannot be “ cornered ” as 
may be some commercial articles. It cannot be 
monopolized, or incorporated and shares allotted. 
It is extended to all the world; “‘ God so loved the 


THE UNWELCOME GUEST 125 


world:” Christ died sufficiently for all men: ‘‘ who- 
soever will, let him take the water of life freely:” 
“he is able also to save them to the uttermost that 
come unto God by him:” “ though your sins be as 
scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, though they 
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” This 
word of God goes out into the world, to publicans 
and sinners, to Pharisees and Sadducees alike. The 
invitation is read in palaces and in the highways 
and hedges. It has equal force and promise in 
China, India and America. Does that lessen its 
value to you? Does that rob you of the ecstacy of 
having the invitation for yourself? 

“‘ Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness? ” 
Paul asked the Romans. It is despised by some 
because of its abundance. For this reason Jesus 
said, at the close of the story of the unwelcome 
guest: ‘‘ Many are called.” But not all included in 
the invitation are chosen as guests. 

Consider the man without a wedding garment, 
the unwelcome guest, as he is today in his attitude 
before he meets God at the Heavenly Banquet. 

The man without a wedding garment is an in- 
vited person. He knows he is invited. There are 
no misgivings in his heart concerning his welcome. 
He knows very well that God supplies the deficien- 
cies of His guests from His own plenteous ward- 
robe. He knows God not only invites, but urges 
him to the banquet in honor of His Son. 

But he will make no preparation for it. He will 


126 THE UNWELCOME GUEST 


not receive the Baptism of repentance on the con- 
fession of sins, even though freely offered without 
money and without price. He will not join himself 
to Christ’s Church. He is good enough as he is. 
The Sacraments? No, he does not bother with 
Sacraments. The means of grace? Prayer, Scrip- 
ture, church attendance? No; he has no time for 
them. Money for missions, home and foreign? He 
needs his money for himself, he has none to spare 
for religion. He will give religion no thought, no 
attention, no co-operation. Christ shed His blood 
for the sin of the world? Well, what of it? 

The man without a wedding garment despises the 
goodness of God, reckoning it of small account and 
worthy of little respect. It is not a great thing to 
him that, among all others, he also is invited of 
God. So “many are called,” or invited. You 
surely now are invited; you may or may not be 
welcomed when the King comes. But you can still 
change your attitude before the King comes. After 
that it is too late. You will be speechless. After 
truculent conduct you must realize there will be 
nothing you can say. 

What about this man without a wedding gar- 
ment? Let us defend him and sympathize with 
him! A man has the right to be angry and trucu- 
lent over the democratic goodness of the King. It 
is not an ignoble quality of human nature to value 
things according to their rarity and the possibility 
of exclusive ownership. It is no honor to have the 


THE UNWELCOME GUEST 127 


great Monarch of all the world invite us, and pre- 
pare for us, if He is also going to extend the invita- 
tion to the highways and byways. Let others who 
are easily pleased put on wedding garments if they 
feel themselves honored. 

Look over the guests bidden to the King’s feast! 
You see tears of joy running down the faces of 
publicans and sinners. They are in anticipation 
already partaking of the King’s bounty. Hear 
them singing at a table in the far corner: ‘‘ Even 
me, even me! Jesus saved us; even me! ” Note 
how one company of men and women, near the 
door of the throne-room, are nervously awaiting the 
coming of the King. They are making themselves 
somewhat ridiculous by prophesying His coming 
when He does not come: but it shows how anxious 
they are to honor and see Him. ‘They feel it is 
wonderful that the King’s goodness has included 
them in its invitation. The banquet hall is echoing 
with the Hallelujahs of the Redeemed. 

But who is that man with a sneer on his face? 
You heard him say, ‘‘ There’s nothing worth-while 
in an invitation that is extended to everybody! ” 
He is not thankful. Heis not happy. He does not 
feel himself blessed. You can hear him ask: “ Put 
on a wedding garment? This banquet invitation 
an honor to me? Go to any trouble about it? 
Make a fuss about it? Make myself fit for it? I 
should say not! It isn’t worth honoring! ” 

That is the man without the wedding garment. 


XIII 
A SKYLINE OF BARNS 


“ And he thought within himself saying, What shall 
I do, because I have no room where to bestow my 
frusts? And he said, This will I do, I will pull down 
my barns, and build greater.”—Luxe¥ 12: 17-18. 


‘| one may know a man’s thoughts, one 
| S65 knows that man. 
f= Actions speak louder than words: 

= 29% but a man’s thoughts are even a more 
sure index of the man than are his actions. 

Jesus’ story of the barn builder, commonly 
known as “‘ The Rich Fool,” reveals a man by his 
thoughts. The character delineation which Jesus 
offered is lost if we confuse this story with the par- 
able of the rich man and Lazarus. This story is 
concerning a rich fool and was addressed to a fool 
who probably was rich. A certain man had inter- 
rupted Jesus to request: “Speak to my brother, 
that he divide the inheritance with me.’”’ No doubt 
Jesus meant His parable to apply to this man. 

Yet it was also addressed to “an innumerable 
multitude of people.”’ This audience was not com- 
posed exclusively of rich men. Jesus meant His 
words to reach all whose horizons were bounded by 


128 





A SKYLINE OF BARNS 129 


money, or barns, or possessions, or food, or clothes, 
or amusements, or the details of life to the exclu- 
sion of God. 

With a master stroke of characterization, Jesus 
showed what monopolized the fool’s thoughts and 
He quoted His soliloquy: ‘‘ he thought within him- 
self, saying, What shall I do, because I have no 
room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, 
This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and 
build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits 
and my goods.” 

A man with an horizon of barns is a realist with 
vision limited to material goods. Omitting from 
present concern any question of moral delinquency, 
which may or may not be assumed of such a ma- 
terialist, there is revealed the futility of such a 
man’s existence, and the emptiness of a soul with- 
out ideals. 

Jesus portrayed a man whose skyline was limited 
by his barns. The sun rises in the east and sets in 
the west, but for this successful farmer the sun only 
rose over his barns in the east and set in the west 
over the new annex to his barns. His east was 
barns and his west was barns: his horizon was 
bounded by barns. He knew barns and thought 
barns and talked barns by day and dreamed barns 
by night. He was probably a pest to his family, 
who likely heard nothing else at breakfast, dinner 
or supper than “ barns ” and “ more barns.” Only 
matters that related to barns were interesting to 


130 - A SKYLINE OF BARNS 


the man with the soul of a barn builder: for all 
matters which did not relate to barns were to him 
unimportant. 

‘“ But God said unto him, Thou fool.” The man 
was not a fool because he was rich, and he was not 
rich because he was a fool: but he was a fool be- 
cause he could not see anything else than the barns, 
which constituted his wealth. Jesus named the 
man what he was. He did not tag the label to the 
man, He read what was already on the label. 

In this story Jesus utters no condemnation of the 
rich fool. He did not represent God as saying, 
“This night thy soul shall be required of thee— 
and thou wilt go into Gehenna.” This man was 
not threatened with hell after death. That was not 
the point of the story. As stated in another par- 
able, Jesus believed a selfish Dives would find him- 
self in hell after his death. But the rich fool of 
this story is not threatened with any dire calamity 
in the world to come. Not a word is said about a 
future life or its circumstances. It is well to keep 
in mind the one thought Jesus wished to impress on 
the interrupter. It had to do with futility: “ This 
night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose 
shall those things be which thou hast provided? ” 

Condemnation does little good to a fool. He is 
not amenable to correction. Especially if he be 
very rich, he is quite certain he knows everything: 
though unteachableness is a characteristic of the 
fool, whether rich or poor. The rich fool has a 


A SKYLINE OF BARNS 131 


thick skin. He does not care what is said about 
him. He feels he can afford to be complaisant 
toward criticism. He believes the tirades against 
him are always born of the envy of others and their 
desire to obtain his wealth. He has developed a 
deep-seated distrust of motives. His experiences 
have led him to discount pleas of altruism. So 
often the conclusions of men’s pretended concern 
for his welfare have terminated in that pocket-book 
of his which they professed to despise. His need 
of a defensive attitude has created a stone-wall 
about him. Shafts fall crumpled to the ground. 
Denunciations are shed from his heart like water 
from a roof. He can be neither cajoled nor 
frightened. He isn’t fearsome of hell. He will 
serenely take his chances. So far things have 
gone very well with him: he will await the future 
without dread. 

Jesus did not threaten this man of the barns. 
He did not denounce him: nor warn him. He per- 
mitted him to reveal himself as a fool. 

It is gratuitous to assume that this rich fool had 
acquired his wealth by any wrong-doing or that 
he was conspicuously uncharitable or irreligious. 
This is not the story of the man who closed his 
heart to beggars. This man was not necessarily a 
miser. Rich men are often rich because of their 
very liberality. ‘“‘ There is that which scattereth 
abroad and yet increaseth.”” Some men sow spar- 
ingly and reap sparingly, some sow bountifully and 


132 A SKYLINE OF BARNS 


reap bountifully. This man had reaped bounti- 
fully: which, at any rate, does not prove that he 
sowed sparingly. His wealth came from the soil, 
than which there is no more honest wealth. He 
may have paid his laborers well: men have grown 
rich by doing that. He may have given standing 
orders about beggars: no one ever to be turned 
away. 

This is not the story of an irreligious man as 
“religion ” is usually defined. Why assume that 
he was not a praying man? It is more reasonable 
to suppose he gave thanks to God for his prosper- 
ity. After seeing the Pharisee in the temple and 
hearing his prayer, “I thank thee, O God,’—it 
takes no stretch of imagination to suppose this rich 
fool a fellow-worshipper with the Pharisee. He 
also may have assumed that God was very fond of 
him, whereof his prosperity was proof. But if this 
man was charitable to his fellowmen in need, he 
was so without letting his mind drift from his 
barns, and if he prayed he probably prayed about 
his barns as the Pharisee did about his righteous- 
ness. Whereby, in the case of this rich fool, we are 
led not specifically to a conclusion about any wick- 
edness, but to the fact that he was a fool with an 
horizon only of barns. 

The man with eyes only for his barns is a realist. 
He has few illusions, and he is not prone to any 
idealisms. To him a poor man is a poor man, a 
spade is a spade, and a barn is a barn. It were 


A SKYLINE OF BARNS 133 


foolishly fanciful to call these things by any other 
names. The conception of a poor man as a heav- 
enly visitant, or of a barn as being a possession 
which might be glorified for noble purposes, is non- 
sensical. He is a crass materialist who can only see 
what his eyes show him. His counterpart is not 
difficult to find. 

In the days of the American Revolution some 
men saw a Divine cause. To them it was clear that 
the day had come for God’s great experiment in 
Democracy: they beheld the finger of God in the 
providential coming to America of the Pilgrims and 
Puritans and Scotch. They were idealists. They 
saw in George Washington what Abraham Lin- 
coln later said of him: “‘ To add brightness to the 
sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike 
impossible. In solemn awe pronounce the name, 
and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it shin- 
ing on.” 

But there were realists also. They saw in the 
Continental Army only the meagre handful of ill- 
trained, ill-equipped, unkempt soldiers. Benedict 
Arnold saw only a George Washington of human 
failings, and despised him. A Philadelphia news- 
paper editorial celebrated the termination of Wash- 
ington’s presidency with the words: “The man 
who is the source of all our country’s misery is this 
day reduced to the rank of his fellow-citizens, and 
has no longer the power to multiply the woes of 
these United States. Every heart which feels for 


134 A SKYLINE OF BARNS 


the liberty and the happiness of the people must 
now beat with rapture at the thought that this day 
the name of Washington ceases to give currency to 
injustice and to legalize corruption. This day 
should be a jubilee in the United States.” 

During the period of the American Revolution 
the man with an horizon of barns would only be 
concerned with the relation of the political situ- 
ation to his business. He would be blind to any- 
thing beyond that. He would be as coldly matter- 
of-fact and utilitarian as was Judas Iscariot when 
he commented disparagingly on the devotion of 
Mary of Bethany in pouring a pound of ointment 
on Jesus. Judas computed mathematically what 
that which had been “ wasted ” might have accom- 
plished. Judas was a realist. 

The realist is practical. Jesus meant His story 
of the rich fool to apply, in the first instance, to the 
man who had asked Him to cause his brother to 
divide an inheritance. No doubt this man had 
listened with growing impatience to Jesus’ words 
about the care of the Heavenly Father for His chil- 
dren and even for the birds. When Jesus had got- 
ten so far as to tell about the function of the Holy 
Ghost in caring for the defence of His disciples 
when they should be in trouble with magistrates, 
this practical man could no longer contain himself 
in peace. There was something far more practical 
he had to suggest to Jesus. He wished Jesus to act 
as bill-collector for him. His request revealed his 


A SKYLINE OF BARNS 135 


horizon. He had a chance to know Jesus and to 
learn about God, and all he thought about was how 
to get a financial matter adjusted. 

There is no reason to question the honesty of the 
man who thought Jesus should interest Himself in 
the inheritance dispute. In fact it may be pre- 
sumed from his conduct in presenting the issue 
publicly, as he did, that this man was very sure of 
the righteousness of his cause. Jesus did not dis- 
pute that point. But He told a story. The story 
of the man with a skyline of barns was meant to fit 
the case of anyone who could intrude his financial 
problems into the midst of meditations on the rela- 
tion of God to the world. Inheritances or barns, 
they meant the same thing. The man’s request 
revealed his soul as at night a shaft of lightning 
reveals the landscape. The sordid poverty of the 
practical temperament stood out in all its ugliness 
by its reaction to the winsome and lofty idealism of 
Jesus. With the world’s Redeemer near him, the 
thoughts of the fool are only on barns. He had the 
instincts of a squirrel: concerned exclusively with 
the laying up of a treasure of nuts for the winter. 
“‘ But God said unto him, Thou fool.” 

What do you think Jesus wished to accomplish 
in the hearts of His hearers by telling them this 
story? He was distressed over the emptiness and 
poverty of souls with horizons of barns. And if, 
instead of big barns, the skyline is bounded by lit- 
tle chicken coops, for those who cannot aspire to 


136 _ A SKYLINE OF BARNS 


barns, the tragedy of such souls is equally indi- 
cated. For this reason Jesus included the large 
audience, with the rich fool, in His address. 

Jesus’ story about futilities is for men and women 
harassed with the cares of this world or the striving 
for wealth, or the pursuit of pleasure, who, en- 
grossed in these things, are losing their power of 
vision like fish which become blind because they 
live in underground waters. Such persons, even in 
church, find it quite impossible to get beyond the 
horizon of barns. 

Jesus comes to men with skylines of barns, to 
say: “‘ Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his 
righteousness.” Men limited by the vision of 
barns cannot see the church as the “bride of 
Christ,” nor the needy of the world, as incarnated 
Christs: “inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of 
the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto 
me.” ‘To the man with the skyline of barns Chris- 
tianity counsels: 


“Build thee more stately manstons, O my soul 
As the swsft seasons roll.” 


Crass, stark realism has emptied the souls of 
barn builders. Idealism is dead. With them, see- 
ing is believing, not believing, seeing. They would 
not refuse to share a portion of their wealth with 
God. Not atall. But their difficulty is to see God, 
and understand how they can transmit a contribu- 


A SKYLINE OF BARNS 137 


tion to Him. That is the difficulty of realists: how 
to see God. 

The Church? This realist would do something 
for the Church if the Church were worthy and he 
were not always disappointed when he came in con- 
tact with it. He yet has to find the minister who is 
not unsatisfactory, or else officers or other mem- 
bers who make the Church repellant and inefficient. 
He has tried several, and with the same result. He 
will not endorse an institution which is not run 
right. He has heard the Church called “ the bride 
of Christ,” but no Church he has yet found has 
seemed to him anything else than crude and un- 
worthy. It does not occur to him that the fault may 
be in himself. So he goes back to barn-building. 

He has tried charity work and been disillusioned. 
He found the objects of his charitable impulses un- 
thankful and unworthy. Their plight was always 
traceable to their own faults. He has seen “ the 
dissolute, damned and despairful, crippled and pal- 
sied and slain,” as they were: and inasmuch as he 
would do anything for them, he would be doing it 
for people who did not deserve it. So he feels jus- 
tified in finding the outlet for his surplus money in 
greater barns. 

Foreign missions seemed for a moment to hold a 
glamour for him, and take him away from barns. 
But one day some world travellers came home an- 
nouncing their astounding discovery that mission- 
aries eat wholesome food, live comfortably, educate 


138 A SKYLINE OF BARNS 


their children, and even in some countries have 
servants. And for all this they draw money from 
the Foreign Missionary treasury! So he declares 
himself disillusioned and proclaims he has paid his 
last cent for any support of lazy missionaries. He 
will now build more barns. 

The realist reasons within himself that if he 
could find God anywhere he would share his wealth 
with Him. Or he would devote considerable of his 
time and attention to God’s affairs. But at what 
address will he find God, so he may remit to Him? 


Thus far, God has not been found. As for the , 


near-by church, it is as crude and unworthy as the 
Continental Army in the days of Washington. 
The barn builder never will find God until he dis- 
counts the value of his barns. The barns shut out 
the skyline of God. The man does not see man- 
sions in his dreams for which he can exchange his 
barns. He will need to realize that his barns are 
futile anyway. He cannot hold them forever. 
“Then whose shall those things be, which thou 
hast provided? ” Beyond the barns are palaces, if 
he will but enlarge his horizon. The sun rises and 
sets again, not over barns, but in the chambers of 
heaven and in the Father’s house. The barn build- 
ers might live in palaces instead of among barns. 
They might be the sons and daughters of the King 
of Kings and the Lord of Lords: they might be the 
heirs of the ages, and the inheritors of eternity. 
Jesus came to the barn builders to cast over them 


A SKYLINE OF BARNS 139 


the spell of immortality: to tell the meaning of Cal- 
vary and its assurance. Men should be as children 
standing before the doors on Christmas morning. 
Did they never, as children, dance before such a 
door in eagerness of anticipation? Tomorrow God 
throws open that door. The glories will be of daz- 
zling radiance: the ecstatic joys overwhelming: for 
the Father is rich beyond the possibilities of men’s 
imagining. And God’s providence cares for all, 
even the birds of the air. 

Will you interrupt to ask Jesus to collect a bill 
- for you? Is there nothing else to see, nothing else 
to dream about, than barns and more barns? 

“ But God said unto him, Thou fool.” 


XIV 
CHRIST AND PROGRESS 


“Then goeth he [the unclean spirit], and taketh to 
him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; 
and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state 
of that man ts worse than the first.” —LuKe 11: 26. 





BS sy aD VANCE on a road leading away from 








A one’s destination is not progress, but 
px AY retrogression. There is the greater 
<Di% distance to retrace. If at the end of a 

day of effort one is farther from his goal than he 
was at the beginning, the day’s effort was futile. 
Yet the meditation on such a result may mark the 
beginning of an advance which will be real progress. 
Astonishment must have followed upon Jesus’ 
story of a man who disastrously ended a temporary 
spiritual improvement by having eight devils dwell- 
ing in him instead of the one of which he was origi- 
nally possessed. ‘‘ When the unclean spirit is gone 
out of a man” the condition of such a man self- 
evidently seems bettered. But Jesus proceeded to 
say that such progress might only be the prelude to 
a more complete catastrophe: ‘‘ Then goeth he (the 
unclean spirit), and taketh to him seven other spir- 
its more wicked than himself; and they enter in 


~ 140 


CHRIST AND PROGRESS 141 


and dwell there: and the last state of that man is 
worse than the first.” 

Jesus’ illustration challenges careful thought. 
What did He mean to accomplish by this brief 
sketch of soul-history, which may be named “* The 
Return of the Demon”? Evidently He had in 
mind the futility of misdirected efforts. We prob- 
ably will agree that His crushing pessimism applies 
to some theories of progress in our age, from which 
perhaps our own hearts have not been altogether 
immune. We shall gain much if we come to a re- 
newed conviction that without Jesus we cannot be 
saved. 

That which seems to be progress may end in 
overwhelming disaster. Men may deceive them- 
selves into supposing that an apparent spiritual 
advance is gain, when, as a matter of fact, such 
gain is but temporary at best, and by its very ex- 
istence creates a condition which is sure to result 
in a worse spiritual state than there was before the 
so-called improvement commenced. Reaching an 
understanding of what is impossible and futile in 
the treatment of sin and evil, though this bring us 
to a pessimistic conclusion, may quickly turn us to 
another method of treatment which has glorious 
promise. 

Jesus was deeply concerned over the demons He 
found in the hearts of men and women. To Him, 
sin was a grim reality. He loved the people He 
met in the cities and villages of Palestine. He 


142 CHRIST AND PROGRESS 


yearned to convey to them the knowledge of God 
and the purpose of their existence. Always upper- 
most in Jesus’ mind was the value of the human 
soul, each soul more precious than the whole world. 
But humanity was tragically unreceptive to His ad- 
vances. Doors were shut: ears were stopped: eyes 
were closed. Sin had done that. The result of 
demon possessions was sickness of body, mind and 
soul. Men were epileptic, deaf, dumb, blind, lep- 
rous, because their bodies were dwelling-places of 
demons. Because their minds were tenanted by 
demons, they were bigoted, conceited, prejudiced, 
illogical, thoughtless. Because their souls were 
dominated by demons, they were self-righteous, 
proud, hateful, resentful. 

Jesus believed in the reality of demon posses- 
sions. He placed His stamp of acceptance on the 
theory that human ills were due to demoniac activi- 
ties. To Him there was no superstition in such a 
view of the ailments of men. If the explanation 
that sin and misery are the result of a devil within 
men be a superstition which should now be out- 
grown, then Jesus endorsed a superstition and 
Jesus is outgrown. For of the sincerity of Jesus’ 
belief in demon possessions there can be no ques- 
tion; the Gospels leave us no other alternative. If 
Jesus was wrong in so serious a predicate of His 
activities, He is no dependable guide or teacher in 
any other matter of spiritual diagnosis. 

Jesus entered human affairs as a fighter, an an- 


CHRIST AND PROGRESS 143 


tagonist, a champion of God in the arena of human 
souls, battling for conquest over an enemy against 
whom He had declared uncompromising war. He 
came to bruise the head of the serpent. He was 
meek and lowly, kind and considerate, winsome 
and inviting in His attitude toward sinners; but He 
was commanding, severe, uncompromising in His 
character as sworn enemy to the devil and his 
legions. With Him it was not play-acting; He was 
not battling a straw-man, He was not reciting. 
formulas in which He merely pretended with a 
deceptive acquiescence to agree with a current 
superstition. For Him it was a life and death con- 
flict on the issue of which hung the destiny of the 
souls of men. And the uncompromising earnest- 
ness of Jesus as a fighter against demons sometimes 
necessitated severity toward men who would inter- 
fere with His warfare. He did not treat the sub- 
ject of demon possession as a figment of the 
imagination, lightly to be brushed aside. 

Jesus’ concern over sin was shown in that bitter 
controversy with the scribes and Pharisees which 
gave the occasion for Jesus’ story of the eight 
devils where there had been but one. The contro- 
versy was on the subject of the efficacy of the 
Pharisees’ work. 

Jesus believed in the absolute necessity for His 
own coming. He did not present Himself as a 
teacher among teachers or as one bringing merely 
additional enlightenment to the world. He de- 


144 CHRIST AND PROGRESS 


clared Himself altogether essential for the world’s 
salvation. Jesus portrayed the tragic consequences 
to the soul which attempted its salvation without 
Him, or submitted itself to the makeshift treatment 
of other human beings. Had Jesus’ attitude been 
that His way was merely another good way of sal- 
vation, or even that His way was simply the best 
among many ways leading to the same destination, 
there would have been little conflict. The matter 
could have been kept in the academic atmosphere 
of argumentation. But the position of our Lord 
was that any other way than His way was worse 
for humanity than no way at all. That was what 
created a blood-feud. The Pharisees resented this 
declaration on the futility of man-made reform, es- 
pecially as Jesus claimed for His illustration an im- 
mediate practical application. The saying had 
teeth: it claimed to fit the case of His hearers and 
to declare their real spiritual condition. Matthew 
reported Jesus’ conclusion as it was fastened into 
His hearers’ hearts: ‘‘ even so shall it be also unto 
this wicked generation ” (Matthew 12: 45). There 
was no escape from the meaning of Jesus’ words: 
‘“‘ you may seem to be improving, but you are sure 
to be in a worse condition than before your so- 
called improvement began.” 

Jesus would not permit the matter of demon pos- 
sessions to be considered as though human inge- 
nuity and wisdom could treat it successfully. ‘‘ The 
Kingdom of God,” Jesus declared, could only come, 


CHRIST AND PROGRESS 145 


“if I with the finger of God cast out devils.” That 
was the declaration of the necessity for Him. A 
stronger man than a strong man was _ needed. 
“ When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his 
goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he 
shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh 
from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and 
divideth his spoils.” ‘These were Jesus’ words pre- 
ceding His story of “The Return of the Demon.” 
His deep concern over sin was born out of His 
knowledge that its eradication was impossible ex- 
cept by the power of the Son of God. He did not 
come to be a teacher of beautiful sentiments. God 
could have used other means for that. But the 
Divine Son Himself was needed for the terrific fight 
with “a strong man armed” in the souls of men. 
No palliatives could remedy the case, no human 
effort, no process of education, no fatuous ignoring 
of the reality of sin; He Himself was absolutely 
needed, and only because that was so did God give 
“his only begotten son.” 

Jesus had such deep concern over sin, and over 
the necessity for His own coming to a warfare 
against demons, because He knew that any other 
way of salvation was worse than futile and ineffec- 
tive. The crushing pessimism of Jesus was directed 
against any other hope of success. Let men try to 
cast out demons, and the demons would but return. 
Not only would a demon return to the heart appar- 
ently renovated, but would return with seven more 


146 . CHRIST AND PROGRESS 


demons: there would then be eight devils instead 
of one, a perfect bedevilment. The self-authorized 
spiritual physicians were engaged in malpractice. 
“ The last state of that man is worse than the first.” 
The relapse sure to follow would be more serious 
than was the original ailment. 

You see Jesus in the arena dealing in tremendous 
earnestness with demon-possessed souls: “ they 
brought unto him—those which were possessed 
with devils’ (Matthew 4: 24). “ There met him 
(Jesus) two possessed with devils—and they cried 
out, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son 
of God? Are thou come hither to torment us 
before the time?—And he said unto them, Go” 
(Matthew 8: 28). We cannot explain the Gospel 
accounts of demon possessions aS mere supersti- 
tions, without also dismissing Jesus as an outgrown 
teacher. The Gospel states that in Capernaum 
‘there was in their synagogue a man with an un- 
clean spirit; and he cried out, saying, Let us alone: 
—I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. 
And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, 
and come out of him” (Mark 1:23). Gentle as 
Jesus was toward suffering, sin-stained humanity, 
yet He was also an uncompromising fighter, who 
came ‘that he might destroy the works of the 
devil.” He knew Himself to be that antagonist 
of the serpent who had been promised since the 
days of Adam in Eden. And He would brook no 
interference from demons, or from misguided 


CHRIST AND PROGRESS 147 


spiritual leaders who could not successfully win 
the fight. 

With consciousness of the need of Himself, Jesus 
declared ‘‘ I am the way, the truth, and the life: no 
man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” “Iam 
the door.” ‘ He that entereth not by the door unto 
the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the 
same is a thief and a robber.”’ And His disciples 
echoed their Master’s assertion in the declaration: 
“‘ Neither is there salvation in any other: for there 
is none other name under heaven given among men, 
whereby we must be saved.” 

Efforts expended in the wrong direction would 
not help but rather make worse the spiritual con- 
ditions of men. Apparent progress would only 
result in relapse. And perseverance in the wrong 
direction would only aggravate and increase the 
harm and make the final state the more hopeless. 
Like persistent practice on a musical instrument, 
begun and continued with a bad fault, it were bet- 
ter there were no effort at all, rather than the in- 
dustry and application which only confirm the 
fault. There is the greater distance to retrace. 
And Jesus could not permit men to overlook the 
tragic consequences to their souls from spiritual 
malpractice: ‘‘Woe unto you, scribes and Phari- 
sees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to 
make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make 
him twofold more the child of hell than your- 
selves ” (Matthew 23: 15). 


148 CHRIST AND PROGRESS 


We are not addressing ourselves to scribes and 
Pharisees. But we are directing our thoughts of 
Jesus’ teaching, in this age which has a fatuous 
confidence in automatic progress and legislative 
palliatives, to men and women tainted with a false 
hope. Is there salvation without repentance and a 
new heart? At any rate let us be clear that Jesus’ 
conclusions concerning the inevitable end of spirit- 
ual experimentation without His Divine aid was 
crushingly pessimistic. 

It does not interest us to attach to any persons 
or philosophies the name of “ pharisaism.” But 
let us beware of salvation without Christ. Such 
would “ wish away ” sin: obliterate it by not think- 
ing of it: deny it by ignoring it. Such would be- 
lieve in the sufficiency of human endowments to 
conquer the seed of the serpent. Demon possession 
would be relegated to the realm of superstition. 
All we need is ‘‘ to think right.” So Jesus, as a 
combatant, is not essential He may remain a 
choice friend with good advice, but not the stronger 
than the strong man, the only one to wield the 
finger of God, the only way to the Father. 

When Jesus declared the result of Pharisaism 
He knew from experience, as well as intuitively, 
that the last state was worse than the first. He 
knew the relapse of the soul: its hardened condi- 
tion: the complete bedevilment: eight devils in- 
stead of one. Jesus’ illustration does not necessarily 
imply that a man would commit eight times as 


CHRIST AND PROGRESS 149 


much outward sin in his last state. Perhaps the 
difference would be slight; perhaps there would be 
an apparent outward improvement. But Jesus 
knew that the soul which had suffered a relapse 
would be hardened, unteachable, unreceptive. 

Will we not fall down on our knees to thank the 
Lord Jesus Christ for the clear and positive state- 
ments He made to save us from the tragic folly of 
trusting in ourselves, or in any man-made remedy 
for sin? 

You know that unless Jesus casts him out, the 
demon always comes back, and with the continuing 
return of the demon there is the danger of sinking 
into a state of hopeless despair, or of hardened 
self-righteousness. Do not trust to your own 
powers of reform: do not let the deceit that there is 
salvation in any other name influence you. 

Jesus’ illustration of the futility of self-reform is 
like a fence of iron bars that blocks a road. It 
stands rigid and unyielding. It decisively dis- 
courages the attempts to break through it. Jesus’ 
positiveness cannot be evaded: we have seen its 
uncompromising nature. 

But why has the fence been erected? Would one 
resent the closing of a road which ends at the brink 
of an abyss? Are you angry if the obstruction of 
this road forces you to see the Way of Safety? 


XV 
AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 


“Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right 
hand, and the other on thy left hand, tn thy glory.” 
—Mark 10: 37. 






AA go MBITION is determination to achieve 
AK) Xok an objective, and is born of earnest 
/a%e% Ys) purpose. Ambition, in order to over- 
KEE) 8 come difficulties, calls upon such re- 
sources of the soul as fortitude, consistency of 
endeavor and endurance. 

A fascinating cross-section of human nature is 
presented in the request of James and John for 
seats on the right hand, and on the left hand of 
Jesus, in His glory. In Matthew’s account of this 
incident the petition of the sons of Zebedee was 
also endorsed by their mother in the words: 
“Grant that these, my two sons, may sit, the one 
on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in 
thy Kingdom.” 

A cynic might derive some amusement over the 
immodest request of these two disciples, and the 
resultant play of emotions. Of the fellow-disciples 
of James and John we are told: ‘“ when the ten 
heard it, they were moved with indignation against 


150 


AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 151 


the two brethren.” But any temptation to mirth 
vanishes as the vibrations of tense heart-strings 
come to us, for there can be no question of the 
deep feelings involved in the situation. 

To dismiss this incident as merely an exhibition 
of childish selfishness is a very shallow reading of 
the gospel. The request of James and John is of 
tremendous importance and significance to us: 
sympathetic understanding of it will not merely 
yield an intellectual satisfaction, but will drive 
winged arrows into our hearts. When we realize 
the groundwork for this extraordinary petition, 
we shall not be able to avoid some reflections 
which should translate themselves into immediate 
conduct. 

Self-welfare created by unselfish service is the 
motive force of Christianity. All service rendered 
the cause of Christianity is recompensed, Chris- 
tianity not only recognizes the incentives of reward, 
but emphasizes them. Christianity does not look 
upon men and women as though they were autom- 
atons acting without impulses. A _ disposition 
among men and women loftily to disdain the offers 
of rewards and superciliously to put them aside 
with an assumption of their unimportance or un- 
worthiness as motives of conduct, is an attitude of 
mind not born of humility and nobleness of spirit, 
but of unbelief seeking to excuse unfaithfulness. 

The twelve men who constituted Jesus’ aposto- 
late are history’s incomparable group. In them we 


152 AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 


are introduced to the most distinguished company 
of men on earth. As we look upon paintings of 
“Napoleon and His Generals,” or ‘“ Lincoln and 
His Cabinet,” we feel there were much lacking in 
our education if we did not know the men of these 
notable groups. Far more serious were our igno- 
rance if we did not know ‘“ Jesus and His Gener- 
als,” or His ‘‘ Cabinet,”’ for these twelve men con- 
stituted the most remarkable body of human beings 
this world has ever known. 

Jesus’ apostles were not men without talents: 
John, Matthew, James and Peter wrote immortal 
literature. They all were great men, even Judas 
Iscariot. Their chief greatness lay in their spirit- 
ual capacities, faithfulness, energy, persuasive 
power, and steadfastness even to death. They 
were the choice of Jesus for foundation pillars of 
the Church. They were not merely the first ones 
who believed on Him, but were Jesus’ picked men. 
Jesus told them, ‘‘ Ye have not chosen me, but I 
have chosen you”’ (John 15: 16). We may not be 
able adequately to appraise them as Jesus did, but 
we know enough about them and their work to real- 
ize that even with their faults they were worthy as 
Christ’s choice for apostles. | 

How serious to the cause of Christianity was the 
choice of its first office-holders it is not difficult to 
realize, nor the momentous consequences which 
were involved. Humanly speaking, one inexpli- 
cable Judas seems about all the handicap early 


AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 153 


Christianity could overcome. Tragic would have 
been the results had there later been another to 
become a thief, or an adulterer, or a recanter of the 
faith under pressure, or a heretic. Surely Jesus 
realized the seriousness of the choice of the person- 
nel of His staff, and when He invited a man into 
the company of the apostolate it was a great com- 
pliment to such a man. 

But what of their quarrelsomeness? The group 
characteristics of these twelve are always interest- 
ing: we glory in their spirituality, loyalty, energy. 
But other characteristics, not so lovely, and yet 
very prominent, are presented with no attempt to 
gloss them over. The most conspicuous of such 
was the spirit of strife among them, of rivalry for 
power and position. And this was not confined to 
a single occasion, but repeatedly came to the sur- 
face. “ At the same time came the disciples unto 
Jesus, saying, who is the greatest in the Kingdom 
of Heaven? ” (Matthew 18: 1). ‘‘ And he (Jesus) 
came to Capernaum and being in the house he 
asked them, What was it that ye disputed among 
yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: 
for by the way they had disputed among them- 
selves, who should be the greatest ” (Mark 9: 34). 
Visualize, if you please, that scene of argument as 
each one of this company asserts that he is the 
greatest! ‘‘ Then there arose a reasoning among 
them which of them should be greatest” (Luke 
9:46). ‘‘ And there was also a strife among them, 


154 - AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 


which of them should be accounted the greatest ” 
(Luke 22: 24). This latter strife took place in the 
Upper Room in Jerusalem, on the night of the be- 
trayal, amid all the solemnity of those last hours, 
and just after Jesus had given these disciples the 
Holy Communion. So the story of James and John 
and Salome asking for seats in glory next to the 
throne on Jesus’ right hand and on His left, is not 
an isolated instance of the spirit of the apostolate, 
but a characteristic one. 

There is great profit from a patient moment of 
examination into the apostles’ spirit of strife, its 
causes and circumstances. It is shallow gospel 
reading to neglect it. It is mistaken charity to 
gloss it over. The writers of the gospel were not 
simply indiscreet in perpetuating the knowledge of 
these quarrels. In minimizing these statements, 
because they seem derogatory to Jesus’ Cabinet, we 
may unwittingly do the reputation of the apostles 
more harm than good. It might increase our re- 
spect for them far more than is done by the dis- 
missal of the subject with the implied admission 
that the apostles were simply subject to petty strife, 
without any adequate reason for it. 

Jesus treated the striving of His apostles for 
preferment with leniency. True, He corrected the 
direction and defined the objectives of their deter- 
mination, and also clearly set forth the method of 
its attainment. But He by no means crushed His 
disciples’ ambitions for greatness. He indicated 


' 


AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 155 


that their greatness would need to be attained by 
unselfish service and not by domineering assump- 
tions, that its basis would need to be childlike trust- 
fulness and simplicity. But He did not break their 
spirit. It was made plain to James and John and 
their mother Salome, that the rewards of the King- 
dom of God would be apportioned according to 
desert and not by favoritism. A damning condem- 
nation, a sneer, an unwise rebuke would have 
broken the hearts of those two sterling disciples, 
and would have fanned the embers of jealousy in 
the other ten. Jesus declared there was an under- 
standing between God and Himself whereby the 
distribution of the honors in the future Kingdom 
were to be apportioned on a merit basis, of which 
God alone would be the judge. Had Jesus desired 
to eradicate the root from which grew their strife, 
a different and less lenient course would have been 
followed by Him. 

Jesus Himself was responsible for His ambitious 
disciples. Jesus made men ambitious. He made 
them so by His constant references in conversa- 
tions, sermons and addresses concerning the King- 
dom of Heaven to rewards, powers, treasures, rec- 
ompenses. He promised the possibility of acquir- 
ing everlasting riches and becoming truly great. 
He insisted on holding before the imaginations of 
His disciples the achievements of compensations, 
remembrances, glories. Even to a mere cup of cold 
water nothing would be forgotten, even down to 


156 AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 


that done for “the least of these my brethren ” 
every act would be recompensed. “ Inasmuch as ” 
anything was done for anyone in the name of their 
Lord there would be rewards. ‘There would be 
cities to be ruled over, there would be new talents 
to be given those who used what they had, there 
would be positions in glory and thrones: no man 
should do anything without receiving a hundred- 
fold of lands and houses or their equivalent, and in 
the world to come eternal life. 

Jesus did not deal with His disciples as if they 
would strive without incentives, He dealt frankly 
with them in recognizing motives as necessary facts 
in the souls of men. So He had His disciples walk- 
ing as in dreams. He cast His spell over them by 
arousing their imaginations. ‘They felt themselves 
to be premiers in a great Kingdom, a greater King- 
dom than the world had ever before known. They | 
felt themselves to be important men near the 
throne. This is the explanation of their ambition 
and enthusiasm. They believed Jesus’ promises of 
rewards. They accepted His words at par. They 
believed that Jesus’ promises were one hundred per 
cent. truth. 

The results of Jesus’ influence over His followers 
may be looked upon either as ludicrous or as sub- 
lime according to how one believes Jesus. No 
doubt Jesus used a dangerous weapon. Ambition 
is a two-edged sword. Ambition made the dullard 
disciple a marvelous zealot. Perhaps it drove 


AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 157 


Judas Iscariot to treachery. The postponement of 
the promised reward may have made him peeved 
and ugly. But Jesus nevertheless used personal 
reward as the motive for His disciples’ conduct. 
He promised that God would remember every- 
thing: alms, prayers, service. Men believed what 
He told them, and one either laughs or gasps in 
watching the transformations which took place. 
Zaccheus gives away his ill-gotten gains. Matthew 
leaves his lucrative customs office. Jesus fired ordi- 
nary, common men and women, who had no claim 
whatever to any greatness, with such conceptions of 
the importance to which they might attain that 
they actually became great as they yielded to that 
spell. Even moral delinquents became saints be- 
cause Jesus expected it of them. 

By His own example of restless striving to ac- 
complish a task and reach a goal, Jesus made His 
disciples ambitious. Men, like Andrew and John, 
met Him and then rushed from His presence to 
convert their brothers. Jesus said: “‘ I am come to 
send fire on the earth.” It has been said: ‘‘ People 
came from John’s baptism dripping with water, 
from Jesus’ baptism dripping with fire.” Jesus it 
was of whom it was said: “ He shall baptize you 
with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Ofttimes in 
the restless energy of doing His work, Jesus had no 
time to eat. He fell exhausted into the little boat 
on Galilee’s shore. His enemies said of Him: “ he 
is beside himself.” He applied to Himself the 


158 AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 


words of the prophet: “ The zeal of thine house 
hath eaten me up.” 

Under the stimulus of Jesus’ own example of 
activity, and His promises of rewards and glories, 
it was impossible for the disciples to fall asleep at 
their task. They were not anemic posers, group- 
ing themselves for future painters, and listless as 
their portraits are on the stained glass church win- 
dows. They were whirlwinds of activity, turning 
the world upside down, often indeed quarreling, 
but not quarreling because they did not care about 
the progress of the Kingdom, but because they did 
care and wished a large share in it. Jesus made 
them ambitious. What else could have been ex- 
pected as the result of their believing implicitly His 
promises: “‘ I appoint unto you a Kingdom, as my 
Father hath appointed unto me: That ye may 
eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom, and 
sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel ” 
(Luke 22: 29). 

What has caused the vast difference between the 
enthusiasm of these first disciples and the lethargy 
of the average church today? Is the outstanding 
reason this, that these first disciples believed Jesus’ 
promises of rewards without equivocation, and that 
today the average Christian does not believe, and is 
not interested in Jesus’ rewards? Men may dis- 
count Jesus’ promises of compensations, treasures 
in heaven, rulerships and glories, as largely “ sales 
talk.” They may consider Jesus’ words as they do 


AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 159 


some advertisements of moving picture shows, dis- 
counting the high praise by from forty to forty-five 
per cent., and holding under advisement whether 
the promised show is any better than the average. 

For those who have already wasted most of their 
lives, and know quite well that they shall probably 
waste the remainder of it, there is a strong tempta- 
tion to believe that there is no truth in the promises 
of rewards and treasures for Christian service. 
Such come readily to a lofty disdain of the offers of 
recompenses, superciliously putting them aside 
with an assumption of their unworthiness as mo- 
tives of conduct. Let us be sure that such mental 
attitude is not of humility, but of unbelief seeking 
to excuse unfruitfulness. 

Or would we tell Jesus that He used unworthy 
incentives with His disciples? Shall we ask Him to. 
keep His rewards? The money we give to God’s 
cause is spent, gone, lost, like any other money for 
groceries or amusements. We are willing to give 
to religious causes what we believe is a decent sum 
of money, considering our means and our rights to 
ourselves. But we are not building castles-in-the- 
air on any promises that we shall be laying up for 
ourselves treasures in heaven. We are willing to 
help the cause of religion by some service, but as 
to the proffered rewards, we are not interested. 

What would you think of a child whose parent 
promises a wonderful gift as reward for faithful 
school work, to be given such child on its gradu- 


160 - AMBITIOUS DISCIPLES 


ation day, yet the child responds that it prefers not 
to think of nor be influenced by any such promise? 
What would you think of one of these apostles of 
Jesus, if he replied to Jesus’ promises of rewards 
and recompenses that he was not interested in 
them, and preferred they should be given to others? 
As to such an one’s absolute belief in the words of 
Jesus, spiritual capacity and susceptibility to the 
lure of heaven, would you prefer him over a James 
or John, even though these latter in their childlike 
fervor and simplicity of belief, needed some cor- 
rection of their exuberant ambition? | 

If we think it is becoming in us, we may be crit- 
ical of the request of James and John, these sons of 
Zebedee. Or we may dismiss the incident with a 
passing and shallow comment on the strange dispo- 
sition to quarrelsomeness among Jesus’ disciples. 
Or we may enter into the experiences of their lives, 
and understand their inspirations and ambitions. 
We might realize how their faith carried them 
through peril, toil and pain and justified the choice 
of them as among the greatest body of men on- 
earth. We might rejoice in their sincerity of belief 
in the promises of Jesus Christ, and glory in their 
honest faith. If we believed as they did, would not 
Christianity experience a renaissance? 

Would God the Church today had more sons of 
Zebedee. 


Printed in the United States of America 








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